A Naruto Sequel The End Of The World
by jemiiryuu
Summary: 3 years after Boruto's first chunin exam, the apocalypse begins. After 2 years in a post apocalyptic world Boruto has been killed, his best friend Sarada Uchiha and younger sister Himawari Uzumaki must fight to survive along side the other survivors. Sarada 18/19 years old, Himawari 16/17 years old. Comments welcome!
1. Prologue

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Prologue**

 _The doctor told me I should write about what's happened, that it might help me take it in easier. Which seems ridiculous to me anyway, even if I accept what happened, nothing is ever ok in this world. Actually, she isn't even a real doctor, she's just been picking things up from trial and error and scattered documents we've found, so there's that as well. But here I am, writing because I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to do now that the last relative I had, my older brother, is dead._

 _I suppose I'll start from the beginning? Maybe that will help?_

 _I was born in a place called the village hidden in the leaves, that place doesn't exist anymore. I was born during the early years of what they called the golden age of the shinobi world, an age of peace and advancement. My own past seems like a fairy tale to me now. I wish I dreamed of my childhood, the days before the end, the days when my family were still alive but my sleep is haunted by the events of E-day._

 _The end of days, E-day as we call it. 2 and a half years ago now I think, it's hard to keep track That was the day I was meant to become a ninja, the day I graduated from the hidden leaf village academy. I had shown my brand new headband to my mum and brother, but I couldn't wait to show my dad. I never saw my dad that day. Or ever again for that matter. He wasn't in the village that day, he was at the five kage summit and he died there. My mum died in front of me, saving me._

 _Most of the adults in the village died that day, only a handful of them survived and the rest of them died in the following six months, saving us; the children of the village. Our original leader, Mirai Sarutobi was the last of the adults to die, leaving us as a group of genin and chunin scavenging across the world. Sarada Uchiha is our leader now, 19 years old and she leads what remains of humanity._

 _We call them demons, the things that invaded on E-day. They are twisted in behaviour and outward appearance, like a nightmare in living form. Before E-day, the sky was a beautiful thing but now it is a reminder, a horrible memory. The day the sky opened, and they poured through and killed everyone. I'm sure before E-day, being able to speak of the death of everyone I knew and love would have been a point of concern, but that was a different era. The irony about E-day was no one in the village would have survived that day if it wasn't for a demon of our own world. Kurma; the nine tailed fox, the tailed beast that lived inside of my father, the seventh hokage for his entire life; and the only family I have left._

 _My name, is Himawari Uzumaki. And I live at the end of the world._


	2. Chapter 1

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 1**

The sound of explosions burst through the air. Time and time again. A group of four young ninja ran away from this. From the smoke emerged a pack of beasts, demons. With skin which looked like muscle. They screeched as they chased after the four young ninja, who scrambled out of the small compound.  
"Go ahead I'll handle them!" A young blonde ninja turned to face them, bringing his arms behind his back. Forming a one handed hand sign in each hand he pulled two black swords seemingly from the skin on his back. He rushed forward, towards the beasts cutting through them with his swords. Despite their wounds they all turned on him at once. Bringing both blades together they turned into a kind of black liquid which reshaped itself into a scythe, spinning he bisected all of them with this new weapon. Moving back towards his comrades he separated the scythe back into two blades and returned them from whence they came. He quickly turned his head back as he and his team mates entered the forest.

"Himawari, something else is coming can you see?!" Himawari using her byakugan found the new demons chasing them, similar in shape but with different skin.  
"Metal skins!" An alarmed Himawari screamed. Her comrade's expressions turned from worry to terror in an instant.  
"How far to the cliff?!" Another one of their comrades screamed to her.  
"About a mile! Inojin are you ready?!" Himawari shouted back to the blonde ninja from before. Without answering the blonde ninja took out a scroll and began drawing on it. The team continued to run through the forest, spouting questions at their comrade. As they approached the edge they had still not received an answer, and the demons were gaining on them.  
"INOJIN?!" The two other members screamed, except Himawari, who simply closed her eyes as she ran towards the cliff, ready for the end.

"Go! Ninja art: super beast scroll!" Himawari's eyes fluttered open as she jumped over and the bird of ink which had grown from Inojin's scroll caught her. Inojin sighed as their other two comrades cheered at their escape, which Himawari shyly imitated. The demons skidded across the ground to avoid falling off the edge and roared at their escaping prey. The other two ninja both carried large bags on their back, carrying food and other supplies for their camp. That was the prime purpose of this little unit, Inojin was able to create these ink birds for air travel to avoid the demons, and Himawari was able to view the contents of any structure they found without landing due to her unique eyes, normally the other two members of the squad would be the most well rested members of the entire regiment to carry the scrolls. The unique abilities they possessed made Himawari and Inojin some of the most important living ninja.

"Sarada" Someone knocked on a wooden door.  
"Enter." We spotted Himawari and Inojin on their way back  
"Thank you Jinsho". Sarada gathered her things and began to make her wait out of her makeshift office. While not quite the hidden leaf village, their group of survivors was considerably larger than any other they had encountered. Sarada thought it would do the group a name would help to give her friends hope and strength as such she named their group 'the Kōyō. Over the last few years, including the brief time before Sarada became their leader, the Kōyō had settled in many bases for rest and shelter, the concept of home was a thing on the past. Currently they settled in what was once a merchant village, while not entirely in one piece it was in very good condition under the circumstances.

After the initial invasion the majority of the adult Shinobi died, with only a handful left alive the majority of the Kōyō were children no older than sixteen years old with the exception of a few. Some of these were Mirai Sarutobi and Hanabi Hyuga, with Mirai being the group's original leader and Hanabi being the head scout. Hanabi and Mirai died during the first six months after the leaf villages destruction leading Sarada to becoming the leader. The position of head scout fell to Hanabi's nephew and Sarada's best friend, Boruto Uzumaki. One month before the present, Boruto and his sister Himawari lead separate scouts in an attempt to bring more resources in but Boruto's squad never returned. This left his younger sister as the only living byakugan user, which left her to being heavily depended on by the Kōyō. Something Sarada thought would be good for her.

Himawari and the others landed, being met by a group of their comrades looking for food for their families. At first civilians were victimised for their lack of power against the demons, many of the ninja called them deadweight. Sarada often had to protect the civilians from her own ninja.

"Hey guys, how did you get on?" Sarada asked her friends.

"Fine I guess." Himawari blankly said, walking past Sarada and the others. Sarada's eyes followed her younger friend with a deep sadness in them.  
"Pretty good, we encountered some flesh demons but they weren't any trouble for me. Although we did encounter some metal skins again." Inojin said in detail. "Sarada?" He placed his arm on Sarada, who woke up from her worry filled thoughts.  
"Oh sorry Inojin, that's good. How long do you think the supplies will last?"  
"A week maybe, I think it'd be best if we scout again in three days." He finshed before turning his own gaze to a distant Himawari.  
"I'm worried about her Inojin, she's slipping away from herself. I know everyone has struggled not to give up hope these last two years but since…Himawari seems live she has given up on everything now." Sarada said, her own voice clearly choking.  
"Yeah, when we encountered the metal skins things got a bit tense for a bit but Himawari… she was completely calm. I don't think she cares about dying anymore Sarada."  
"That's my concern too Inojin. When Boruto was still around, he Himawari and me were the only ones capable of taking down a metal skin on our own but now… Himawari has just lost the will to fight."  
"Boruto was important to you too Sarada, maybe you should talk to her. It's ok for you to grieve too."  
"I'll try and talk to her later Inojin. But, I cant afford to grieve for Boruto. I need to hold it together to support the Kōyō."

At the back of the camp, resided a small mountain range where Himawari spent most of her time. This was where Kurama currently made his place in response to the Kōyō's current location. Currently Kurama lay between the mountains, asleep. Himawari smiled at him weakly and jumped onto his head, she lay down in a ball into his fur and began to subtly cry herself to sleep. Kurama opened his eyes and looked towards the young girl. In his heart, he felt a great deal for the young ninja though he would never admit it. After the death of the sage of six paths millennia ago and the tailed beasts went their separate ways Himawari's father was the first friend Kurama had made and Naruto's family was something like a surrogate family to Kurama, something he would never admit to anyone.

After having dispersed the supplies to her people, Sarada found herself visiting her friend Shikidai who was training the youngest members of the Kōyō. Nowadays, kids as young as five had to be trained as quickly and as effiently as possible if they had any chance of survival. Sarada was quite a well-read child in the hidden leaf village and she had read about the era of warring states. She remembered thinking it sounded like a nightmare, but now many of those nightmarish facts paled in comparisons to current times. The kids had been split into groups of four and were faced off against an older ninja. The older ninja was taking the role of a metal skin, one of the most dangerous demon breed the Kōyō had currently encountered. Two of the young students leapt forward with kunai's in their hands which the older Ninja blocked with an armoured pad on their arms. The two remaining younglings leapt forward each holding an end of a chain, rope or wire which their partner holding the other end. These two caught the older ninja by the neck with their tool and pulled him back to the ground, afterwards all four moved past them.

"Good! Remember, this formation while useful for pinning escaping a metal skin when cornered it can be rendered moot if in the presence of more than one metal skin so use with care. Also, in the event that escape is not an option you could attach a paper bomb to the pinned metal skin." Skikadai lectuered, before he dismissed his students.  
"That was pretty impressive Shikadai, you're definitely as smart as your dad although that serious tone reminds me of Miss Temari haha." Sarada joked.  
"Hmm. You don't need to make me feel better Sarada. Giving these kids a chance of surviving is enough for me." Sarada smiled at her friend as she found a young child, probably the youngest in this group pulling at her shirt.  
"Miss Sarada, did you see me training?!" The young boy asked excitedly. Sarada smiled down at the child as she kneeled down to look him at eye level.  
"Yes I did, I saw you take down the older ninja with your friend. What's your name?"  
"My name is Haru."  
"Haru? That's a good name." The boy began to look at Sarada in awe, his eyes begins to sparkle.  
"Hey miss Sarada! You think maybe I could protect you alongside Mr Inojin soon?!" Sarada blushed slightly.  
'What a cute child' she thought. She brought her hand up to his head and poked him on his forehead.  
"Maybe next time Haru." The kid didn't even seem down heartened for a moment, he just looked extreamly happy.

"Don't you have someone waiting for you?"  
"Oh my big sister! I'll see you later Miss Sarada. Shikidai Sensei." Sarada stood up feeling hopeful as a young Haru ran off home.

But that hopeful feeling didn't last long.

A massive explosion erupted before the camp, as the sound of the explosion faded it was replaced by a tempest of screams.  
"Demons!" One of the camp look outs screamed. Above Sarada and Shikidai more demons began appearing out of the mountain face behind them.  
"METAL SKINS" Another lookout, positioned at the makeshift academy alerted. One of the metal skins, possessing an unusually large arm jumped ahead its brethren resulting in a large explosion of dust originating at the spot young Haru just stood. 


	3. Chapter 2

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 2**

The dust swirled around in the air, as the metal skin demon whose body was outsized by his arms gave a gargled noise akin to laugh. This noise ceased once the dust settled and he saw his arm had actually came into contact with a white glowing rib cage like chakra. Inside the Chakra Sarada stood between the demon and the boy, Haru cowered behind Sarada's leg.  
"Haru, go to your sister. She's going to need you to protect her right?" The scared Haru gave a very hasty nod as he scurried away. The demon turned to him ready to pursue its prey when it found itself bending over due to a tremendous force in its stomach. "Cha!" Sarada pressed her fist further into the demon as she twisted it, the metal began to crack apart and the demon began spurting some kind of purple blood. Sarada gave on last push into the demon, sending it flying back into the rock face behind them. The other demons began making their way towards Sarada as she took a stance ready to fight them. They approached and attacked together, using her own unique eyes the sharingan, Sarada danced around their attacks using her enhanced strength to land devastating blows upon each of them shattering their metallic skin. The last one, appearing in Sarada's blind spot found itself paralysed when just inches away from Sarada. Its shadow, momentarily bound to Shikidai's before Sarada defeated it.

"Thank you Shikidai."  
"Yeah well, need to give myself some use don't I?" Sarada smirked at her comrade.  
"Shikidai, I'll need you to take the kids to the new base Boruto found before…." She trailed off, but the order was given. Shikidai nodded and signalled the kids to follow. Across the small town, Inojin, using his ink blades cut through many regular demons just he had done before. One of the demons nearby, jumped towards a comrade who was falling from higher ground unable to dodge in mid-air the ninja braced himself for attack. Removing his top, revealing the collection of tattoos on his body including a set of wings which with a simple hand sign sprouted from his back. Grabbing his comrade, thus removing him from harm's way he turned back to the falling demon.  
"Ninja art: Ink Phoenix exploding feather!" He flapped his wing, with ink feathers with some sort of seal transcribed flew towards that demon and several of its kind. The explosions caused by these were unfortunately drowned out by a different sound.

Bolts of orange lightning struck the ground where the demons first arrived to this battle, the shinobi looked on in horror. Even at the other sides of the camp Kurama, Himawari and Sarada all seemed terrified of that lightning.  
"That light…. That can only mean…." Himawari stuttered.  
"COLASSALS!" A great deal of ninja screamed, unlike the previous alerts these screamers were pure fear.  
"No…. they aren't just colossals…. Their…." Inojin's words stumbled out of his mouth.  
The large demons strode out of the dust and smoke. "They are colossal metal skins…. KURAMA!" Kurama heard the young human calling on him and readied himself for battle.  
"Himawari, will you be ok escorting these people yourself?" Himawari nodded to her own demonic companion as he leapt towards the front side of the battle field. The large metallic demons jumped at the fox who using his tails swatted them down before using his claws to smash through their skulls. Kurama then turned to see more of them coming towards him.  
"More of you huh? Bring it on!" Kurama roared as he met the onslaught head on.

Back with Himawari, she escorted some of the younger ninja as well as some of the civilians along a pre-set route when a small number of regular demons dived down onto them. Amongst the panic Himawari jumped towards the demons, landing an open palmed trust on each one of them. This simple attack left the demons falling limply to the ground.  
"Keep moving! I'll handle anything that comes this way." As much as Himawari had lost the will to live, she still couldn't let others die in front of her. Her attention was quickly turned to a small group of metal skins sprinting towards her. She readied herself but she quickly spotted two ninja running towards the metal skins, one tossed a kunai with wire to the other and together they tied the entire group within the wire.  
"Now! Use Miss Sarada's Jutsu!" One shouted to the other.  
"Right!" Both used a series of matching signs.  
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Both ninja yelled as the wire ignited killing the ensnared demons.  
"Nice guys!" Himawari cheered, smiling at her friends. They ran towards Himawari and they continued on with civilians.

Having dispatched a great deal of metal skins on her way, Sarada had may her way to front lines killing the smaller demons slipping past Kurama.  
"Inojin! How many are left?"  
"I only sense a handful of demons in the compound now, the majority are here with us. I can sense one heading to Himawari but shes not alone so one demon shouldn't be a problem even if it is a metal skin-ugh" Inojin quickly turned, seemingly facing into nothing.  
"Inojin? What's wrong?!"  
"It's the demon heading for Himawari, it's multiplying?!"  
"What? You mean like a clone jutsu?"  
"Something like that yeah, but I've never seen any of them do that before!"

Himawari watched in horror as the metal skin surrounded itself in some kind of red electricity which seemed to allow it to split into more metal skins, although not identical ones. Her comrades ran forward with more wire as before able to capture them once again, but as soon as they did the increasing number eventually broke the wire. Horrified the duo leapt back but, they were caught. Using the vicious varying array of limbs and claws they possessed the demons lacerated the pair until they were unrecognisable. Having ceased multiplying they made their way to Himawari who signalled her remaining comrades to flee. Using her byakugan Himawari dodged an obscene amount of attacks and was able to land a number of counter blows. Those she struck twice fell to the ground in agony but not before another demon split from them in the burst of red light. Despite her remarkable vision she eventually found herself overwhelmed as two of the metal skinned demons pierced her body with one of their sharper limbs. One of the ninja still escorting the civilans watched on as Himawari fell to the ground, as the rest of the demons prepared to destroy what remained of the young Uzumaki.  
"HIMAWARI!" She screamed, all the civilians heard the scream, but no one on the front lines could hear her, no human anyway.

The sound of the young female ninja's scream echoed through the air into Kurama's ears, Kurama distracted by this found himself being knocked down by one of the colossal demons. Lost in his new found range, Kurama ripped the demon apart. He looked on at the other demons coming towards him roaring he created a condensed chakra ball in his mouth.  
"Kurma! What are you doing?!" Sarada screamed to Kurama's deaf ears. Following the explosion created by the tailed beast ball Sarada held her ground in the blast wave as she watched Kurama jump away from the front lines.  
"Shit…. He could have killed us all with that attack just now." One nearby Shinobi exclaimed.  
"Show some respect! Kurama is the reason we've survived this long!" Sarada snapped. "Inojin do you know what happened?!" Inojin didn't answer at first just looking deeply saddened. He turned to Sarada slowly, somehow she knew what he was going to say.  
"It's Himawari's charka… its fading."  
"no… Himawari…." Sarada chocked on the words as she felt further downhearted.  
"Miss Sarada! Look! More colossal demons heading this way!" Another young ninja screamed. Sarada turned, frustrated.  
"All you have to stay back, throw some paper bombs if you see the opportunity." Slowly, Sarada's eyes changed from the three tomoe sharingan into her own mangekyou sharingan.  
"Sarada, you aren't going to….."  
"No Inojin, I'm not going to use my right eye, as long as we have Kurama, I should be able to avoid that. I just have to keep them busy until he returns."

"Himawari! Hang on I'll- ahhh" The young female ninja, attempting to use medical ninjutsu on Himawari was cut off by the rushing air waves from the landing of Kurama. Kurama looked very alarmed as he set eyes upon Himawari.  
"Girl! What happened to Himawari?!"  
"She was struck by two metal skins, I…. I can't heal her wounds… I'm sorry I just don't know enough…" She said, breaking down in tears.  
"Himawari….."

 _Blood, blood everywhere. The young man held onto his chest, stopping the bleeding only delayed the inevitable this was Naruto Uzumaki was to meet his end. The slower bleeding allowed his exceptional life force to stay alive despite his damaged heart. He brought his free, bandaged arm to his stomach underneath his shirt.  
"NARUTO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WITHOUT ME YOULL DIE IN MINUTES?!" Kurama protested what Naruto was about to do.  
"Kurama… we both know that this wound is enough to kill me anyway…. It will just take longer without you…" Kurama went to protest but he knew that Naruto was right.  
"Listen… these guys. They've beat us. The five kage are done. We will hold them here as long as possible but I need you to go back to the village. Protect my family… please Kurama."  
"Naruto I-"  
"KURAMA! PLEASE!" Naruto begged his friend, Kurama couldn't argue anymore and he gave Naruto a silent nod.  
"Goodbye… Naruto… My friend."_

"Get away from her." Kurama said, unusually calmly.  
"What?"  
"I'm going to save her." The young girl looked up again, preparing to ask questions.  
"Don't bother asking questions! Get out of my way or I'll kill you and save her anyway!" Kurama placed his paw over the dying Uzumaki once the young medic and the ninja guarding her left Himawari's side.  
'Naruto, I'm sorry that I failed to protect Boruto. But I refuse to have the same failure protecting your daughter!' Kurama roared once again as his body was surrounded by his large red chakra before his body itself became the same chakra and it flooded into Himawari's body. 


	4. Chapter 3

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 3**

The air was ripe with what could best be described as an empty awe after Kurama inserted his entire being into Himawari, the ninja present ran towards their fallen comrade to see that her wound had still not healed. They looked across the battlefield to see that the multiplying demon was still being dealt with by more of their comrades. Metal lee and Shikidai Nara had stepped in as the demons were about to finish off Himawari, the young medic had hoped that Kurama was going to save them from it but clearly his main concern was Himawari. She wondered if the rest of the Kōyō meant anything to Kurama and she wasn't the first to wonder this.  
"Hey Iona, what is Kurama trying to do?" One of the other ninja asked the young medic Iona. She wasn't sure herself at first but after some thought she had a theory.  
"Boruto once told me that the Uzumaki clan had an exceptionally strong life force, and healed faster than normal people. I think, I think maybe Kurama is trying to enhance Himawari's already powerful healing factor." Despite being nearly completely self-taught, having only learned the basics of medical ninjutsu before E-day, Iona was the primary medic for the Kōyō. Sarada had much more confidence in Iona than Iona had in herself and she was right to because her theory for what Kurama was trying to do was completely accurate.

At the front lines of the battle field, Sarada defended herself from a colossal attack using the skeletal form of her Susano, which had permanently crossed arms across its chest. Once the blow had been absorbed she deformed the skeletal chakra before countering with her own tremendous strength knocking the massive demon off balance. As a second, larger demon turned swung to her she turned and looked it in the eyes trapping it in a genjutsu. The eye that cast the genjutsu began to twitch as she turned and looked at the remaining demons as well as the one that she knocked down regaining its footing.  
'This is bad… there's too many of them for me to handle without over using my eyes…" Sarada thought to herself, before her mind was called elsewhere.  
"SARADA!?" Inojin screamed. Sarada didn't turn, she couldn't take her eyes away from the battle, Sarada made a series of hand signs before sending a massive wave of fire towards the demons.  
"What's wrong Inojin?"  
"I…. I can't sense Kurama anymore…" Inojin said, weakly but loudly enough for Sarada to hear him.  
'Noooo without Kurama, we don't stand a chance… I'll need to use my right eye!'  
"Everyone get as far away as you.." Sarads stopped herself when she seen some of her comrades were still evacuating the front lines.  
'We are nowhere near ready to relocate… I can't use my eye with them this close to me… If I do…I'll kill more than I'll save!'

Elsewhere, another young kunochi was wrestling with her own worries. In the dark recesses of her own subconscious Himawari sat against a corner, waiting for the last remnants of her consciousness to fade with her life. Her head in her arms against his knees, tears running down her whiskered face dripping into pool on the floor of her mind. Her mind flooded with thoughts of her Mother, Father and brother. She remembered E-day, the feeling of her mother's blood running onto her own skin. She remembered the moment Kurama told her that her father died and the long agonising wait on Boruto's return and eventual struggle with his death. She thought of how everyone depended on her now and how she had failed them.

"Himawari!" A voice echoed, Himawari looked up into the dark emptiness. From the dark water that covered the floor a large figure emerged from it, the water rushed off of his form to reveal his fur and nine tails.  
"Kurama?... Where are we?" Himawari questioned.  
"This is your subconscious Himawari" Himawari, suddenly realised what had happened: Kurama had sealed himself inside of her.  
"Himawari, it's time to get up. You are a member of the Uzumaki clan, a wound like this is not enough to kill you." Kurama commanded the young ninja, who simply looked down to her legs again.  
"… What's the point?" She mumbled between her tears. Kurama voiced his surprise.  
"Even if I survive another day, I'm just going to die any day now." She continued to cry  
"Everyone keeps depending on me, to be a scout, to help find food and new bases not to mention fighting metal skins. Everyone thinks so high of me because of my Dad and Grandad, even my brother once helped save the world. All I ever do is let their memory down. So maybe it's better I die and not ruin their legacy anymore."  
"Himawari…" Kurama found himself in an unprecedented scenario.  
"I mean, yeah I'm proud of my heritage. And I voice that as much as I can so that I can keep my families memory alive but the truth is all I ever do is mess up." She continued, as if Kurama wasn't even there giving her last confession. Kurama suddenly looked more alive, as if an idea had come to him.

" _heheheh yeah, I'm strong too after all heheeh"_ _A young boy laughed, but slowly his laughter faded into sadness._ Himawari momentarily stopped crying, unsure what she was hearing. _  
"I know you can win, Naruto."_ The second Himawari heard that name her head shot up and she began looking around the once dark and empty room. She found herself in a clearing surrounded by trees with three wooden stumps at the centre. While Kurama was nowhere to be seen, there were two young children there with her a young blonde with an orange attire and a young girl who bore great resemblance to Himawari.  
 _The young boy gasped, looking up at the girl.  
"Remember that time, when you cheered for me, I felt like I was able to become stronger than ever before. When the prelimanries ended I was finally able to like myself a little. To anybody else it might look like absolutely nothing has changed about me, but I feel different like I'm a better person now. And I've been thinking it's all because of you Naruto."  
_"What… what is this?" Himawari asked, no longer crying.  
"These are your father's memories, one of his most important; this was the day your father began to fall in love with your mother. Although it took the fool many years to realise that." An unseen Kurama answered and Himawari began watching the memory unfold.  
 _"Hinata… You really… do you really believe that's true? I may look strong to you, but all I ever do is mess things up, I act tough because I am so frustrated but underneath it all it I just feel like I'm a huge failure."_ Himawari found herself reflecting on the similar words she had just admitted to herself, near tears once again.  
 _"No that's not true!"_ Both Himawari and her young father looked to the young Hinata in shock.  
 _"Even when you messed up you were, how can I say this? A proud failure from my point of view. When I look at you, you just fill me with such admiration. I'm not saying you're perfect, I mean no one is. But when you do make a mistake you have the guts to pick yourself back up and keep trying. I think that courage, to keep going no matter what is what real strength is. I just think you are an incredibly strong person Naruto." The young Hinata finished before hiding herself behind one of the small tree stumps next to her._

"That was the first time your father ever expressed his true feelings about his abilities to anyone, ever. It took the dope years to realise that and how significant it was. And your mother was not the image of self-confidence either." Himawari looked in awe at her young parents.  
"You think you are not capable at following the paths your family lead, but you are following the paths of your parents exactly. Neither of them were born the amazing people you remember, they fought to get where they were. And if they can both rise from the cocky bratish underdog and the shy timid girl that had no one believing them can build themselves to become the hokage and first lady of the hidden leaf you tell me; What can their daughter accomplish?!" Kurama roared at the young girl, who didn't answer.  
"TELL ME HIMAWARI! IF YOU TRULY WANT TO HONOUR YOUR FAMILIES LEGACY, THEN DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP!" Himawari simply sat there, shocked to her very core.

She bit her lip as she jumped to her feet. A small wave of wind rushing from her, dispersing the memory around her not to reveal the previous dark empty room. Instead, a large white marble room was revealed which she and Kurama sat in.  
"Kurama. Thank you." Himawari said as she whipped away her tears.  
"I, I'm never going to give up again." She declared loudly to herself, screaming it in her head quite literally.  
"Hmm, you won't have to do it alone either. You have me now too."

Back in the real world, Himawari's comrades were still struggling with the multiplying metal skin. Lee and Shikidai were unable to defeat it as it split into two every time it was about to be defeated. It turned its attention to the small trio standing over the wounded Uzumaki and began multiplying rapidly again. Two of its clone lunged towards them, Shikidai began moving his shadow towards them but soon had to stop his jutsu to avoid another attack.

"Gentle Fist!" The two demons found themselves being pushed by an open palm, seemingly too fast to be seen Himawari had leapt up and struck both of them. Despite the nature of the attack both demons fell to the floor and began bleeding from the mouth rapidly.  
"Himawari?!" Iona gasped, then looking further shocked as steam emanated from Himawari's wound as it closed on it's own  
"Hey look, they aren't getting back up! She took them down in one hit! Just like Miss Sarada!" One of the ninja present said excitedly. The other demon clones turned their attention from the two male ninja to their younger healed friend. Himawari had closed her eyes since the first fight and began concentrating her chakra as the whisker marks on her cheeks widened and thickened.

"Let's go Himawari. Show them what you can do." The young girl nodded as her eyes opened to reveal the blood red eyes of Kurama. Two more clones rushed towards her and she swatted them down in similar fashion to their predecessors.  
"Ha, it will take more than that to stop you. You are the daughter of the Seventh Hokage, the granddaughter of the Fourth Hokage. You are a decedent of the might Hyuga clan. And, like your father and grandmother before you, you are a jinchuriki of Kurama the nine tailed demon fox! You are…" Kurama laughed.  
"I am Himawari Uzumaki dattebanne! 


	5. Chapter 4

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 4**

Himawari stared down her the demon clones remaining, they began approaching her crawling at a slow fearful pace. The veins around Himawari's eyes became more pronounced as her red demon like eyes changed into the byakugan but the effect of the nine tails chakra had tinted the normally white eyes with red like blood in water.  
"Is that really Himawari? She seems so… determined." Iona commented, watching Himawari as she took her stance. The demon clones leapt at her, all at once as if they knew the threat she posed. The young Uzumaki turned, dancing around each assault like a feather in the wind. As they turned back to go for their second attack she again danced around each attack, this time managing to land a singular touch on each demons as she twirled away from them.

'This… this is amazing, my attacks always damaged internal organs, but Kurama's chakra…. I can actually cause organs to burst with a single touch" Himawari looked at her hands through her enhanced eyes, marvelling at her new powers. The defeated demons all began to split into more demons resulting in a double in number all around her.  
"Do they ever end?!" Lee exclaimed, ready to help his young friend but Himawari signalled him to stay back.  
"Go, I have this. Continue the evacuation." This time, Himawari moved first. Attacking the two directly in front of her, taking them down in one blow. The two behind her went to attack but Himawari, gripping the demons she just defeated brought both her feet up to kick her attackers. Still on the rise, spinning Himawari was able to kick the rest of the metal skins and again defeating them with her gentle fist.

This time, they all turned into the strange electric like energy that caused them to separate and rushed to a single point, recreating the demon that was their original form. The demon, panting at first roared at Himawari creating a gust of wind which at first pushed her back before she concentrated her chakra into her feet. The demon trembled at its opponent, stepping back from her. The young ninja dashed towards it, striking it with both hands, killing it. Himawari, laughed to herself about her accomplishment before she turned her attention to the front lines of the battle field.  
'Amazing, so this is what it's like to view the world through the byakugan' Kurama thought regarding the eyes of his new jinchuriki. Through Himawari's eyes Kurama was able to see the front lines of the battle field, as if he was there himself. Seeing the trouble her friends were in Himawari began making her way to them.

Inojin and the other ninja continued to push back the demons, metal skin or not back as the evacuation continued; nearing completion.  
"Sarada! We are almost done we are going to start moving back too." Inojin screamed to his friend who gave a tired nod. Sarada was struggling to focus her eyes anymore, she had over used the Susano and her genjutsu and was beginning doubt if she still had enough chakra to use her right eye. One of the colossal demons swung at her before she could notice it, she tried to dodge but tripped onto the ground. A giant Shuriken swung past her and knocked the demon the ground before rising again and striking even more of them. Inojin turned to another of their colleagues with the sharingan, Kabuto Uchiha.

Kabuto took his name from his late foster father, Kabuto Yakushi, who he adored greatly and kept the Uchiha name out of respect for the origin of his powers. Kabuto was not a normal human, he only ever had one parent and before E-day he had countless identical siblings. His own mangekyou sharingan had the ability to manipulate weapons at a distance something which he had trained to move shuriken of extrodinary size. Something his sensei, Tenten, suggested. Two demons jumped above Kabuto, ready to eliminate him but Himawari appeared kicking them both to ground.

"Himawari?! Is that you?" Inojin questioned, shocked as he couldn't recognise her chakra. She nodded at him and turned her attention to a still exhausted Sarada. More demons prepared to swing at her, as Kabuto rose his shuriken to attack again but realised he could not get it there in time.  
'Kurama!' A small dust wave blasted from where Himawari stood and a yellow flash rushed towards Sarada grabbing her just as the demons were ready to strike her. Despite her weakened vision Sarada could make out the bright light enveloping her friend but for a brief moment she thought she could see someone else.  
"Lord seventh…." Sarada said to herself, with a voice filled with disbelief.  
Two normal demons tried to grab her from her 'blind spot' but without moving two chakra arms sprouted from her shoulders grabbing the demons and smashing them into the ground.  
"So that's how she survived, and why I couldn't recognise her charka. Himawari is…"  
"Kurama's jinchuriki!" Sarada, elsewhere finished Inojin's thought.  
"Amazing, the first time Naruto entered this form he broke his own leg from moving too fast and he couldn't hold a rock without breaking it. But Himawari, she was able to move a much greater distance than Naruto did that time without injury and was able to grab two flesh demons without crushing them. It must be because of her gentle fist training! Or could it be, that after three generations that this family has developed an innate ability to wield my chakra.

The massive demons around her all turned to look down on Himawari at once, Himawari merely laughed.  
"You shouldn't laugh Himawari, you may have me here but you've only been my Jinchuriki for about ten minutes, we will be lucky if you can handle a transformation for more than thrity seconds and that's if you can handle it at all!" Kurama warned the young Jinchuriki. But she didn't seem to take heed.  
"I'll be able to handle it! I guess that means you'll need to take them down in thirty seconds dattebanne." Himawari turned and smiled to her demonic friend.  
"Tch, brat."  
'It's annoying how much she sounds like Kushina when she says that.'

Himawari began to glow brighter, her chakra cloak began shifting from simply resembling her normal attire into something else. Her top partially opened up revealing something akin to a black shirt. Her top now lengthened at the back making it more like a real cloak although, the fact it only lengthened at the back while remaining closed caused it to more closely resemble a dress. The whisker marks on her cheeks became thick and her hair seemed to tie itself into a pony tail. The chakra cloak on her body continued to grow forming into a large chakra avatar resembling the fox inside of her. As Himawari screamed the fox roared in unison, it thrusted its two palms forward in the same stance that Himawari used earlier, the two demons fell to the ground. Without turning the fox swatted the two demons behind it with its tails. The area around the fox avatars eyes now possessed the pronounced veins of the byakugan.  
'Heh, having the byakugan now makes having nine huge tails a lot more useful and to think Himawari has already been able to use her gentle fist through my arms and tails' Kurama smirked as her continued to rip through the massive demons with the help of his new Jinchuriki but before long they were at their limit.

With only one demon left, as Himawari prepared to finish it her fox form began to fade as she lost consciousness. The demon gave something sinisterly similar to a smile as it opened its mouth, prepared to devour Himawari but before it could another form appeared before its eyes.  
"CHA!" Sarada punched the demon between the eyes and as its metal skin cracked under her fist she placed a paper bomb between the cracks before kicking off of its face. As she moved through the air and grabbed Himawari as she made her way to the ground. The paper bomb exploded, killing the massive demon. Sarada smiled at her young friend in her arms as the demons body fell to the ground.

A few hours later, Himawari awoke, jumping about of bed.  
"Hey, it's ok. You're safe. We are at the new hideout that Boruto found." Iona said, trying to lower her friend back into bed. Himawari noticed that she was still exhausted.  
"Yeah, your chakra level was pretty low. I guess you weren't use to being a jinchuriki." The girl smiled, Himawari almost forgot what happened. She brought her hand to her stomach and could feel Kurama's chakra flowing within her.  
"I'll give you a minute, Sarada will be with you shortly."

"Hey, Himawari. You and Kurama gave us quite a fright." Sarada told her young friend.  
"Yeah, sorry Sarada."  
"You don't have to-"  
"I mean…" Himawari interrupted her, shocking her.  
"I haven't been trying very hard these few months, I haven't really wanted to live since Boruto died…and that..that was selfish of me."  
"Himawari…" Sarada reached out to her young friend, placing her hand on her shoulder.  
"But from now on, I'm fighting to live! Too many people have died for us to give up now!"  
"What happened Himawari? Is this because you nearly died?" Sarada questioned.  
"Actually, it's because of my mom." Himawari smiled, confusing Sarada.  
"Kurama snapped me out of my depression by showing me one of my dad's memories, the first pep talk he ever got off of my mom. It was pretty cute, but just seeing them again it reminded me of the old days. And… I think that's what gave me the will to be myself again."

"Himawari, I…I'm sorry too."  
"Huh?"  
"Boruto was your brother... I should have been there for you more. But I was so busy trying to be a pillar for everyone at once that I failed to be there for you. I'm sorry." Sarada said, choking on her words.  
"Stop, Sarada. You don't have to do that. If it wasn't for you, we would have died months ago. You're kind of like my dad now actually hehe." Sarada blushed at first, laughing with her friend but soon…

 _A massive screeching cry rang through the air, the wind whistled through the tall skyscrapers of the hidden leaf before an even greater wind knocked them down and ripped them apart. Screams of ninja and demon a like were drowned out by the other noise filling the air as the massive explosion killed them all. The ground cracked and shifted the force of the fallen building causing the ground to crumble entirely. The once iconic hokage face mountain crumbled too pieces, the city above it falling with it as the debris killed hundreds of human and demon alike. At the far side of the village, a young girl cried; one, crying normal tears. And the other, crying blood from the use of the mangekyou sharingan, the right eye. The right eye of Sarada Uchiha._

"Sarada! Sarada!" Sarada had stopped breathing, her body static.  
"Sarada!" Himawari grabbed her friend, snapping her out of it. Sarada took a massive breath, before she began rapid smaller breaths.  
"Sorry Himawari…I just.. I remembered…" She said, still struggling to breathe.  
"No, it's ok I shouldn't have said.." She said downhearted.  
"No, it's fine Himawari. It's not your fault. It's… not your fault."


	6. Chapter 5

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 5**

It had been only a day since the attack, they were fortunate that their back up base was only a day's journey from their old one. Despite the small length of time, Himawari had already fully recovered from the battle, in her small cabin she got dressed observing how she didn't even have a scar from her near fatal wound. She was also shocked at the rapid rate that her chakra had recovered to which she had Kurama to thank, as well as her Uzumaki heritage. Himawari and Kurama had decided they needed to train to perfect Himawari's new jinchuriki abilities. Once she was dressed she ran from her new temporary home and made her way to a nearby clearing to begin her training.

'So, what should we do first? Kurama?' Himawari asked the demon in her subconscious.  
"We've already seen how my chakra augments your gentle fist abilities, but it's likely that my chakra has greatly increased the range of your byakugan lets see just how much." Himawari nodded, activating her byakugan.  
"Right, I can see about 8 kilometres just now I'm going to add your chakra now" As Himawari made her hand sign her eyes changed from white to the tinted red byakugan she used in the previous battle. Once done, she began focusing her vision, finding that she could see far further.  
"Wow… I must be seeing 80 kilometres away… at least!" Himawari marvelled, as she could see a small band of flesh demons walking between trees nearly a country away.  
"hmm if I recall, that's eight times the distance your mother could see when she was your age." Himawari deactivated her byakugan and turned to the massive fox.  
"Something wrong?"  
"No, I just remembered something. When you were encouraging me in the battle, you said that I was your jinchuriki like my father AND my grandmother?"  
"Oh, you didn't know?" Himawari shook her head as the image of a young woman appeared next to her. Himawari recognised the woman from photos in her childhood home.

"Her name was Kushina Uzumaki, your father inherited the majority of his personality from her. You remind of her a bit as well, that temper of yours you definitely inherited that from Kushina and especially when you say dattebane,,," Kurama had obvious annoyance in his voice as he finished his sentence. Himawari just nervously laughed at him.  
"Yeah… I noticed I did that. Think I'm going to try and stop that hehe"  
"Your father and brother did it as well."  
"So when you showed me dads memories, you have some of my grandma's too?"  
"I have all of your father's memories, I was sealed into Kushina when she was around your age. I even have a small amount of your grandfathers."  
"Grandpa? How?"  
"When he sealed me within your father he split me in half, sealing the other half into himself, ugh saying all this at once makes me feel like a family heirloom." Kurama moaned. Himawari giggled at him.  
"What are you giggiling at, girl?!" He asked, frustrated.  
"You're not an heirloom Kurama, you're more like a member of the family." She continued to giggle as the massive fox.  
'Member of the family huh? To say that to a tailed beast. You are your father's daughter, Himawari'

"Now, it's vital we increase the amount of time we can maintain your tailed beast form." Kurama said, more seriously bringing things back to the matter at hand. She nodded to him before entering her nine tails chakra mode and then into her tailed beast mode. Although this was her second time in this form, she wasn't in the heat of battle and could more clearly feel the massive power flowing through her. Himawari stood there and began overserving everything around her with her byakugan, being able to see her friends and even her small temporary home. Himawari felt her strength rapidly failing, her chakra cloak rapidly shifting as it was about to become undone. She deactivated her byakugan and began focusing purely on maintaining her current form but even at that the form soon faded. Himawari fell to her knees and began panting with exhaustion.  
"I don't get it. How can I have that much power and it only lasts 45 seconds?!" She asked, frustrated.

"While my power is massive, the body of a jinchuriki needs time to adjust. Your father was my jinchuriki for a day under seventeen years old when he first entered this form and he barely lasted five minutes, your grandfather only used the form for less than thirty seconds. To be honest it's amazing you were able to enter that form as quickly as you did." Kurama assured his new jinchuriki.

"Let's rest for now, your body will be ready for that form again in about ten minutes and then we will-"  
"No, I want to do other training while I wait." Himawari forced herself to her feet, until she was standing properly.  
"How much of the gentle fist style have you seen?" She asked, still panting.  
"A fair amount, your father fought against one of the most prodigious members of the Hyuga clan and he helped your mother train once they were together. Why? Are you planning on practicing more based on those memories?"  
"Yeah, you saw what we did. We could take down metal skins of any size with a single touch, I need to learn more about that style and no one is here to teach me. I need to learn by viewing." Himawari said, no longer exhausted, something she didn't notice.  
'Amazing, she has recovered already. Her life force might be stronger than Naruto's.'  
"Also, do you think when we have the time. Could you show me more of my family's happy memories?" Kurama smirked at the young girl, thinking how different she was from only two days ago.

Elsewhere, Sarada met her most trusted advisors; Inojin and Shikidai as well as her assistant: Jinsho.  
"Jinsho, how did we do on the relocation?"  
"There were causalities. We lost twelve people, eight civilians and four ninja."  
"We always lose people when we move during an attack, but this is the least amount. We are improving our protocols." Shikidai pointed out, not that it lightened the spirits of anyone present.  
"Unfortunately, we had to leave the majority of our supplies behind. I suggested we go on another scout tomorrow, but now we need to." Inojin pointed out. Sarada sat up, nodding at him.  
"Ok, I'll go see Himawari. Make sure she is up for it."

Sarada approached the clearing where she knew Himawari was training, As she walked through the trees she set her eyes on her young friend, rehearsing a taijustu Kata of the Hyuga clan. She smiled at Himawari, it was good to see her training again. Hanabi had trained her in as much of the hyuga techniques as she could in the six months following E-day but not as much as anyone would have liked. Unlike Himawari, Boruto didn't have a great deal of talent for the gentle fist fighting style which often annoyed him. Seeing Himawari train now reminded Sarada of that and she couldn't help but laugh. As Himawari continued making the various moves she changed into her tailed beast form and then continued to practice but clearly with more difficulty. After fifty seconds the form faded and Himawari began to tremble in her stance, before she fell to the ground.

"Looks a little intense, Himawari." Himawari turned her head slowly to see her older friend approaching her.  
"Sarada…"  
"Look, I know you want to train but I need you to go on a scouting mission, tomorrow." Sarada reached a hand out to help her friend up.  
"Ok." Himawari said, taking the hand.  
"Wait, you are ok with that? It use to take a little persuasion to get you to leave for a mission."  
"Yeah, It needs done right? I'll take a break on training for the rest of the day, I've been at this for a few hours anyway. Transforming like that takes a lot out of me." The two girls simply smiled at each other, continuing to talk about the mission and how much they would need before parting ways as night fell.

That night, as Himawari slept, Kurama gave her dreams of her family.

 _Bright yellow bubbles floated in the air, no, some kind of breathable liquid? In the bubbles reflections of two young people could be seem; Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga. Reflections of their past, all their moments together. Naruto held the hand of the young, beautiful woman.  
"Hinata… Do you remember that lesson in class? The one with, "If the end of the world came, who would you spend your last day with?" I couldn't write anyone's name down. I didn't know my parents, and I didn't have any friends… But now, I know exactly whom I'd choose. I want to be with you. Now and forever, until I die… I want to be with you, and only you, Hinata!" The young Hyuga began to cry, tears filled with more happiness than she had ever felt before. As the floated to the top of the pool, they looked into their memoires of each other both being filled with a sense of warmth they had craved their entire lives. Naruto lifted Hinata into his arms as laughed.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Are you ready? Hold on tight." He told her.  
"Ok-k" She said, nervously putting her arms around his neck.  
"Don't let go alright?" He said with a smile, she buried her head into his chest with a smile of her own. Taking an arm off of her, he used a ninjutsu to propel them out of the water, and into the cave above. Using the same jutsu he pushed them through the ceiling of the underground gave and into the moonlit sky with concerns from his friends falling on deaf ears.  
"Hinata…"  
"Naruto" With both hands on her face he pulled her towards him as they shared their first kiss. _

Himawari fell into a deep sleep, the kind she hadn't felt for years.


	7. Chapter 6

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 6**

Himawari ran frantically to the edge of the their new base, cursing herself she entered her nine tails chakra mode and began making her way at a much greater pace. When she eventually arrived, she deactivated her form and bowed to her friends.  
"I am incredibly sorry! I am so sorry Inojin, Tokuma and…."  
"Shuhei."  
"I am so sorry Shuhei!" She bowed again, having risen when realised there was a stranger among them. Tokuma was one of the scouts on Himawari's last scouting mission, he and shuhei would be transporting the scrolls on this scout.  
"Shuhei's first ever scout and our lead scout sleeps in, that's just embarrassing eh Hima?" Inojin taunted the young Uzumaki and her face went bright red, much like her mother in her youth. Inojin was surprised she even responded to the taunt, as was another unseen figure.

Inside Himawari, Kurama laughed at the awkwardness of his new jinchuriki. Kurama was very curious at how this young girl had regained so much more of her personality after becoming a jinchuriki, he couldn't help but think of a particular time in Naruto's life.  
 _"Becoming a jinchūriki, you can lose a lot, and your heart goes hollow, but if you got things you don't want to lose, they become a light to follow! The tailed beasts aren't our only source of strength! What was inside our hearts before the monster... shines like a sun, powers us to any length! That's where our true power comes from!" Words, describing what it means to be a jinchuriki, spoken by a good friend of Naruto, killer bee, to the fourth Raikage.  
_ 'Becoming a jinchuriki hollows your heart eh bee? I guess that makes Himawari the anti jinchuriki. Hehe'

"I haven't even heard of anyone sleeping in since well, before all this. You must be quite the sleeper Hima." Tokuma tried to tease as well, using her nickname for the first time. In actuality, for the last few months Himawari struggled to sleep, having nightmares about her brother but now Kurama could choose her dreams for her and she could sleep better than anyone left alive.  
"Come on guys, stop teasing. So, Shuhei? This is your first scout? How old are you?"  
"I just turned fourteen a few days ago, I volunteered just before you got back from your last scout. I want to do more for our people."  
"Well, don't worry. This is Kurama's first scout too." She smiled at the boy, turning to Inojin nodding at him. Inojin took out a scroll and released four ink birds.

The scouting team took to the sky, and with Himawari's newly enhanced byakugan active they began their mission. The goal was normally to find an old shinobi settlement, and hope there would still be supplies there to be scavenged sometimes however they simply had to hunt. A lot. This particular mission though meant the latter was not an option. When Himawari told Sarada of her enhanced byakugan the day before, she was very happy as it meant an even greater chance of success.  
"Inojin, adjust direction, two ocklock."  
"What do you see?"  
"I…. I'm not entirely sure." She stuttered. Her friends looked at each other before looking back.  
"Is there supplies?"  
"Yeah, a lot. But there's something else there too."

After an hour worth of flight, they found themselves at their destination. It was an old war outpost created by the hidden stone during the third great ninja war, because of their expertise in the earth style they had built many stone bases during the wars and a fair few of them still stood today. In fact the Kōyō had previously used one as a base. Much like another surviving group had done in this base, had done. Corpses of this group were littered across this stone fortress, Kunai everywhere and dried blood staining the walls.  
"What… what happened here?" Shuhei asked, deeply concerned.  
"I don't know, Himawari you and Shuhei seal whatever supplies you can find. Tokuma and I will have a look around. See if we can't figure out what happened here."

Inojin found himself in a large room with a balcony above, he took notice of the crossbows mounted at various points above him, all pointing in the same direction. Elsewhere, Tokuma found bodies with Kunai in their throats as well as holes in some of the walls. Beneath them, in an underground room Himawari and Shuhei began sealing supplies into the large scrolls when Himawari activated her byakugan out of curiosity when she noticed an oddity in the brick work. After about an hour, the group came back together.

"I don't think we need to be concerned about what happened here guys, this looks like it was just a fight between two surviving Shinobi groups." Tokuma was the first to speak at their regroup.  
"I don't think that's what this was at all." Himawari corrected him, taking them all into the supply room.  
"I noticed that these bricks were uneven, which I thought was odd since this place should have been built at once using a singular jutsu right." Her team mates nodded. Himawari activated her nine tails chakra mode, using the chakra arms to tear down the wall. Revealing a massive stockpile of supplies and weapons.  
"That brick work was way too obvious for any trained ninja to have missed, then there's the fact that supplies on this side of the wall were also untouched. If this was a battle between ninja why not take supplies?" Himawari questioned, receiving no real answer but she noticed the worry on Inojins face growing.  
"Inojin?"  
"Come with me."

Inojin lead the team back to the room he was in before and he began pointing out the cross bows above them.  
"I don't get it, what's so special about these cross bows? Why have they got you so worried?" Shuhei asked. The team didn't answer, they just kept looking at each other. They had all come to the same conclusion.  
"It can't be, it's been over two and a half years and we've never encountered one" Tokuma spoke worriedly.  
"It doesn't mean they don't exist, Kurama saw them at the Kage summit." Himawari reminded him, without looking at him.  
"Encountered what? What does this have to with the Kage summit?" Shuhei asked, getting annoyed.  
"A humanoid." Inojin answered him, Himwari and Tokuma didn't seem to be very fond of hearing this thought out loud.  
"A humanoid?" He questioned, sounding even more confused.  
"The ones behind the demon invasion. The ones who killed….the kage." Inojin hesitated, looking at Himawari as he did so.

"We call them humanoids because like the demons, they don't have any chakra meaning they aren't of this world but they look the same us." Tokuma explained to the younger ninja.  
"So no one has seen one of these things? Only Kurama at the kage summit? What makes you think it was one of them that was here?" The boy continued inquiring.  
"Look at the crossbows, look at where they are pointing." Shuhei looked frantically at the crossbows, still not seeing it he jumped up to look down their line of fire. Having only reached the second one, he caught on.  
"They are all pointing at the same spot, the middle of the room?"  
"Correct, that means, this was done by one person." Tokuma answered, waving has hand towards several of the corpses.  
"How so? They could have been ambushing a group in here." He argued.  
"Then why not point them at the door? It would have given them more chance of hitting multiple targets before they could react. They waited for their target to get to the centre of the room and then fired on it from as many directions as possible. And somehow, it deflected all of them." Inojin finshed, walking into the centre of the room, in a clear circle surrounded by a flurry of arrows.  
"Ok, so it was one really strong ninja?!" Shuhei was properly scared now, he didn't want to believe these things existed.  
"They would have taken the supplies, and if they couldn't carry them all they would have come back for them later. These bodies have been here for months." Himawari was the one to answer this time, she had been fairly quiet in this discussion. The humanoids weren't an easy thing for her to talk about.

The young Shuhei looked horrified, not a lot of the younger members of the Kōyō knew about the humanoids and it was clear why, the very idea was terrifying.  
"We should head back Inojin, we need to tell Sarada about this." Inojin nodded.  
"We should clear this place of bodies first." Tokuma intervened as they turned to leave.  
"This would make a good new hideout for us. There is too many supplies here to pass them up as well." The others nodded as they split up to begin tidying the base.

"….Did you hear all that?" One voice asked, from behind the doorway.  
"Humanoids? They can't be serious?" Replied another.  
"Who knows, they claim to have someone who survived the kage summit."  
"Maybe. But did you hear the name they mentioned?"  
"Sarada?"  
"Yeah, if that's who I think it is. Lord Seph will be very pleased."  
"Hm, I guess we should report to him then."


	8. Chapter 7

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 7**

The scout team, having tidied the abandoned base they found of bodies they began making their way home. Since they began theorising the involvement of a humanoid in the slaughter they uncovered there was an uneasy, fearful even, tension among them. Himawari simply started into the distance with her incredible eyes, hoping she could find something, anything to distract her from what they had seen. She seen small bands of demons, simply wandering or sometimes eating. This was the first time anyone had found anything even suggesting the presence of the humanoids since Kurama told the survivors about the kage summit. Himawari couldn't help but think back to how much Boruto wanted to find one and punish it for everything it had caused, a bittersweet memory at best. So it was clear why Himawari was looking for a distraction and look for long enough and without doubt you'll find something.

Far away, but not so far that the others couldn't see it, orange lightning struck into the ground.  
"That light, colossals…" Shuhei said, the idea scared him but he felt safe at this distance. Convenient for the team, the demons weren't even in the same direction that were heading. Despite this, Himawari focused her eyes towards them. She could see it, it was a very small band on survivors. There couldn't have been more than twenty of them, the Kōyō had a little over one hundred, but some of them seemed to be a bit older than the the Kōyōs oldest members. Himawari felt something in the pit of her stomach, she watched as they helplessly through their paper bombs at the metal colossals, as she watched them flee.

"We should help them!" Himawari turned to her comrades, angry and guilty. Her comraders were shocked partly because Himawari was not normally this outspoken but mostly because the idea was mad.  
"Himawari… we can't. As much as we might want to it's too risky" Tokuma advised, pulling his ink bird up to meet hers.  
"He's right, the Kōyō is counting on us to get these supplies back we can't risk the mission." Inojin backed him up, but he clearly was more upset by the fact. Himawari wanted to argue back but she had nothing, she just growled at her comrades. She knew that Boruto use to feel the way she felt now, wanting to save every survivor they found. Sometimes she wondered if that's how he died but those thoughts were too painful. She just continued to watch the group, she watched as the giant demons toyed with them even if they dodged an attack the small explosion would send them hurtling through the air. Her chakra began to flutter, her whiskers thickened and widened, her hair dancing in the strong red chakra. Shuhei began to move away from her, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.  
"Himawari, calm down." Inojin said smoothly, but she ignored him.

She could see an older woman, the oldest person she'd seen since E-day running towards a younger boy who was simply lying in the dirt crying in fear. A large demon swung its arm down at the boy and the woman put her body between them. Himawari couldn't bear to watch, but at the same time she couldn't look away from them either. Before the demon struck them it was struck by an enlarged human fist. Himawari gasped, her chakra calming. The others new she was still watching and they couldn't help be curious and concerned. From her reaction, she didn't see someone die but she seen something she wasn't expecting. Himawari didn't see where she come from, but now there was a large dark skinner woman going to toe to toe with the large metal skin demons.  
"Chocho…" Himawari muttered.

"What?! What did you just say?!" Inojin flew closer to his friend frantically.  
"It's Chocho. She's there! She's alive!" Himawari turned, tears in her eyes. Tears of joy for a change.  
"Who's Chocho?" Both Tokuma and Shuhei asked, not in the same words. They weren't met with answers Himawari and Inojin just kept looking at each other in shock. Eventually however Inojin turned to their comrades.  
"She was a member of my Shinobi squad before E-day she had family in the hidden cloud and was visiting them that day, Shikidai and I just assumed she died there." He explained, Tokuma went to ask another question, but the answer to that one was clear.  
Inojin and Himawari's ink birds both turned to fly towards the demons. Shuhei and Tokuma reluctantly followed after them.

At their camp, or what was left of it Chocho continued to push back the demons in her giant form. She wasn't strong enough to defeat them but she could still defend herself from them. She grabbed one of the demons and threw into another then bringing her arms back to strike away another demon lunging at her. She felt her strength beginning to fade, outnumbered and outmatched. She heard the cries of her comrades and continued to fight on but deep down she wasn't sure if she could win. She shoulder charged into a demon, knocking it down to the ground before picking it up and using it as a flail against the others before chucking it across the open wasteland. However the demon span round, landing on its feet not far from Chocho and lunged back at her. Taken aback Chocho brought her arms to her defence but the hit never came.

Chocho heard a crash and felt a shake in the ground. She looked from behind her arms and seen a giant fox chakra avatar.  
"Lord seventh?!" She exclaimed.  
"Chocho, stay back we have this!" The fox head turning back, allowing her to see Himawari inside.  
"Himawari?!" Surprised to see her young friend inside the chakra she watched as Himawari killed the demons with one blow each, like they were nothing. Chocho shrunk down to her normal size awestruck. She turned to see her comrades being defended by two ninja whom she did not recognise but the third.  
"Inojin…" She gasped, watching the young blonde fending off flesh demons with his ink weapon. She partically expanded one of her arms as she approached to assit when a large metal skin fell to the ground behind her, blowing her off her feet.  
"Sorry!" Himawari shouted down to her friend, having accidently knocked a demon in her direction with one of Kurama's tails. Having defeated the colossal demons Himawari faded her chakra avatar, reverting to her nine tails chakra mode, landing next to Chocho.  
"Hey, are you ok?" She asked, Chocho nodded in response. Himawari smiled, shrugging her head towards the others as they both ran off to assist them.

After the battle, Inojin and Chocho shared a very happy embrace. Immediately afterwards she embraced Himawari, with laughs all around. Chocho's people approached, nervously at first.  
"It's ok, these are my friends. They are- were from the hidden leaf" Chocho seemed nervous herself, all of her people were looking too her.  
"How many people did we lose?" She asked reluctantly.  
"More than half, including Gee." One of her people answered, reaching to Chocho placing something in her hand. Chocho was on the verge of anger filled tears, but Himawari spoke out before she could break.  
"Come on, come with us." She placed a hand on her older friends shoulder, smiling at the others as she did so.

Back at the Kōyō, Sarada stood in her makeshift office looking over the maps she had sprawled over the desk in front of her. She had the approximate location of their current settlement on it, she looked over everything that was on the map but these were old maps from before E-day. She would be lucky if anything on these maps was even similar to what it was back then. She sat back down onto a chair, reaching into the weapons pouch at the base of her back. She pulled out a small bit of folded paper, unfolding it as she did so. The paper was a photograph, of herself when she was younger alongside her genin team. She brought other hand up, caressing the faces on the photograph. She stared at Boruto, Himawari's older brother when she suddenly flinched buckling over in pain and dropping the photo to the ground. This wasn't one of the panic attacks she was victim to, this was something different. She found her breathing becoming more erratic. She reached back into her pouch, taking out a small white bottle. She arced her other hand towards a glass of water, missing it at first but catching it the second time. She took two pills from the bottle, tipping them into the glass before preceding to swallow the pills with as much of water as she could.

"Miss Sarada we've spott-"Jinsho knocked the door, entering shortly after. Sarada quickly hid the bottle behind her body, and concealed her accelerated breathing.  
"Sorry, did I interrupt something?"  
"No it's ok Jinsho, I was just lost in my thoughts." An ill prepared lie if there ever was one but he didn't seem to notice.  
"Em, we just spotted the scouts on their way back but…" He trailed off awkwardly.  
"But….?" She inquired.  
"They've brought ninja back with them."  
"What?" She asked, shocked. Sarada made her way outside with Jinsho, finding a lookout. She reached out for his binoculars. She inhaled sharply and began to tear up.  
"Oh my god, it's Chocho"


	9. Chapter 8

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **Chapter 8**

 **(I'D LIKE TO REMIND READERS THAT THIS IS A NARUTO SEQUEL OF MY OWN MAKING. THUS A NON-CANON DETAILED IN THIS CHAPTER FLASHBACK WILL BE EXPLAINED IN A LATER CHAPTER)**

* * *

As the scouts landed, Sarada ran towards them with a sort of childlike excitement rarely seen in the world now. Something she herself hadn't felt in years. Chocho jumped off of one of Inojin's birds and ran to her friend in a similar fashion. As they met the embraced, both crying with joy.  
"I thought you were dead! We never found or heard of cloud survivors." Sarada cried into her friends shoulder.  
"I thought you were, when I saw the state of the village I didn't think there would be anyone left!" She cried back. Images of that day flooded back into Sarada's mind, she could see the mountain fall all too clearly. Himawari seen the look in Sarada's eye and prepared to help her but stopped when she seen that Sarada was able to calm herself down.  
"What happened? How did you…"  
"Himawari investigated a colossal light we saw with her byakugan, and she well seen Chocho fighting them." Inojin explained, very happy at his team mate's return.  
"Chocho?!" Shikadai gasped, Sarada had sent for him but didn't explain why.  
"Shikadai!" Chocho let go of Sarada, running to embrace Shikadai next. It was a strangely happy moment for these ninja a reunion they never expected. Amongst the smiles though there was one ninja still very afraid. Tokuma took notice of the fear still gripping young Shuhei.

"Sarada, Shikadai. We need to talk, privately." Tokuma felt bad for interrupting such a happy moment but he knew he had to. The three of them alongside Inojin, Himawari and Shuhei proceeded to go into Sarada's office. The next few minutes the scouting party began to report their findings to their leaders.  
"A Humanoid?!" Shikadai burst out in a panic.  
"Keep your voice down Shikadai, we need to keep this quiet can you imagine the panic we would cause." Sarada turned, unusally calm for the situation.  
"How sure are you of this?" She asked.  
"We can't say for certain, whatever happened in that base was months ago. But based on what we saw, it's the most likely scenario." Tokuma replied. They all just stood in an awkward fear for a few moments, Shuhei kept looking between them all.  
"Shuhei, I know this was your first scout but we need you to keep this a secret. We can't risk a panic." Inojin turned to the young ninja, trying to reassure him.  
"Just think of it as you're protecting them from themselves." Himawari chimed in, smiling at him.

Shuhei weakly nodded at the older shinobi before taking his leave.  
"Do you really think we should leave this location for that one?" Sarada asked Inojin specifically.  
"Yeah, it's more defendable plus the supplies there could last us several months. And if there really was a Humanoid there they might be less likely to revisit that location." Sarada turned to Shikidai, seeing he agreed she nodded at them all.  
"Jinsho tell the supervisors to begin preparation for relocation. Inojin, could you brief Chocho's people? I'll talk to Chocho myself. Tokuma, Himawari. You guys rest up. You'll need to lead the relocation."

"Hey Chocho." Sarada approached her friend, although it felt weird for her to see Chocho again. Chocho stood up to embrace her friend again.  
"It feels like a dream seeing you again Sarada, I think the only thing reminding me it's not is that there isn't enough food." They both laughed, it almost felt like old times.  
"So you are the leader of this group?" She continued.  
"Yeah… I call them the Kōyō. I thought it would be good for them to have a sense of unity under a name." She replied.  
"The Kōyō, the autumn leaves? Very fitting. It's kind of like you are-"  
"Don't. Don't say it." Sarada interrupted her, Chocho was taken aback by this Sarada was always well mannered except maybe when she was bickering with Boruto. It became clear to Chocho that something happened to Sarada, something that made her scared of being compared to the Hokage despite it having once been her dream.

"What about you? Do you lead your group?" Sarada broke the awkward silence she created.  
"No, I just fought the giants, hehe. Although, after our last leader died it was decided that I should be the one to carry the leadership key".  
"Leadership key?" A puzzled Sarada asked. Chocho reached under her shirt and pulled out a black rod with cavities along its surface area. It was hung by a thread around Chocho's neck, and it was old. Sarada's eyes widened, not with confusion but with shock.  
"Sarada? What's wrong?" Chocho asked. Much to her own shock, Sarada reached under her own shirt and pulled out another 'leadership key' although the cavities were in a different arrangement.  
"There's two of them?!" Chocho asked.  
"Do you know what they are?!" She followed up with before Sarada could react.  
"You called it a leadership key? I thought you knew?"  
"We just call it that because all of our previous leaders have been chosen to carry it. A friend of my mom's, Omoi gave it to our next leader when he sacrificed himself for us."  
"That's what happened to us too!" Sarada shouted back, shocking Chocho.  
"Sorry… Do you remember Mirai?" Chocho gave a silent nod, Sarada began to look less confused and more distressed as she began to tell Chocho how she came into the possession of the key.

 _Six months had passed since E-day. Sarada Uchiha had only recently turned seventeen years old, having a small subtle celebration with Boruto and Himawari. It was Boruto's idea, he thought it would be good for all three of them, but Himawari knew it was more for Sarada than her. Sarada needed something to get her mind off of what had happened. Sarada was aware of this as well, Boruto had made a massive effort in helping her…adjust. Boruto handed them both a soda, shocking the two young girls.  
"Where did you get these?" Himawari asked, excitedly. As happy as she was to still have her brother, and how much she wanted to help Sarada pretending she wasn't damaged herself was very hard.  
"Ah you know, I found them on a scout thought I'd save them for a special occasion." Boruto unlike his sister found it easy to block out the bad and focus on the good. For those he cared about, no task was too difficult for Boruto. Sarada was able to smile a bit when she drank the soda._

However small it was, a happy moment meant everything to people in this world but as they all knew it wouldn't, the moment didn't last. An explosion shook the ground and demon screams rang through the air. Boruto and Himawari both activated their byakugan turning their attention to point of the explosion.  
"Metal skins, lots of them." Boruto told Sarada what was happening.  
"Brother behind them, colossals." Himawari added, shortly afterwards they both seen Kurama rush to battle the colossal demons.  
"We have to go!" Boruto signalled the two girls next to him to follow as he left.  
"Rotation!" A spiralling ball of chakra sent a number of metal skins flying backwards into other metal skins. Stopping her rotation, the oldest of this surviving faction; Hanabi Hyuga, took a stance with both arms pulled back.  
"Eight trigrams: Vacuum Palm Wall!" She shouted, pushing her arms towards a large pack of demons sending an air wave launching dozens of them off of their feet into the wind.  
"Aunt Hanabi get out of the way!" Boruto shouted to his aunt, she turned to see him and Sarada preparing a jutsu.

 _Boruto outstretched his arms, a large chakra vortex in his palms and Sarada executing a series of hand signs.  
"Wind Style: Super Rasen vacuum blast!"  
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sarada's jutsu ignited Boruto's creating a massive rotating flame bullet strong enough to melt the metal skin coating the demons.  
"Boruto, Himawari, Sarada." Hanabi welcomed the three younger ninja to her side.  
"Aunt Hanabi, we need to get out of here. There are too many metal skins, I haven't seen this many since."  
"E-day, I know Boruto. The civillans and the majority of our Shinobi are already moving but, I'm not sure it's going to be enough."  
"We have to find Mirai!" Sarada suggested. Without even moving, all three of the byakugan users present were able to locate Mirai, at the front lines behind Kurma. Once the four ninja had arrived Sarada could see what her friends were seeing, there were far more demons than she feared.  
"Hanabi?" An exhausted Mirai.  
"Mirai, please tell me you have a plan?" Mirai didn't answer she just, looked at her. Hanabi knew what she had in mind.  
"I'm staying with you." She commented.  
"Hanabi! Someone needs to be in charge! Plus, your nephew and niece need you!" Mirai argued.  
"You can't carry out this plan on your own! And if it fails, my nephew and niece will be in danger!"  
"Would someone like to tell us what this plan is dattebasa?" Boruto questioned, clearly annoyed.  
Hanabi and Mirari just looked at each other again, clearly upset._

" _Kurama! We need you here now!"Mirai shouted, the tailed beast complied quickly, generating a gust of wind to push back the demons and buy some time.  
"I don't like being summoned Mirai!" He shouted at the woman angrily, but he soon realised that something was amiss.  
"I need you to take Himawari, Boruto and Sarada away from here and pick the rest of our people. Then get as far away from here as possible." Mirai explained.  
"What? You want me to run!" Kurama shouted, insulted by the idea.  
"Yes! You might be able to defeat all these demons but we need to survive! Far too many of the smaller demons are slipping past you!"  
"Then what?! They will catch us!" Sarada interrupted the debate.  
"That's where you come in, Sarada." _

_Boruto had caught on to Mirais plan and somewhere deep in her heart; so had Sarada.  
"Once Kurama takes you away from here, I-"  
"We." Hanabi corrected.  
"We, are going to hold the demons back as best we can with our large scale ninjutsu." She hesitated before she went on.  
"And once you a safe distance away. You are going to kill all of these demons, with your right eye." Sarada gasped, stepping back from her. She was going to argue, beg them for another plan but the demons were closing in again. Mirai held Sarada by her shoulders._

"Look, Sarada. I know how you feel about this, and I know how you feel about your right eye. But I believe in you, I believe that despite what it did that day, your right eye is the key to protecting our people. Despite what happened, you haven't let your broken heart stop you from protecting your people, you've helped me more than you think." Sarada began crying, she couldn't bare what was happening.  
"So listen to me from now on, you are in charge. You will lead our people. So you'll need this." Mirai reached under her top, and removed a necklace from around her neck before putting it on Sarada.  
"What is this?" Sarada asked.  
"Truth be told, I don't know. Shikamaru Sensei gave it to me on E-day. He told me that no matter what else happened, that this had to stay in the hands of the living. That one day, it would be what gave us back our world. That's all I know abo-"  
"Rasengan!" Boruto charged the rasengan into a demon that tried to jump onto the group.  
"We're out of time!" He shouted to the women at his side.  
"Kurama!" Mirari shouted. Kurama grabbed the younger shinobi, jumping away from the front lines.

" _Humans! Get on now! And hold on tight!" Kurama shouted as he landed next to some of the other ninja. Kurama continued to move away from the front lines, picking up more ninja as he went. Through his byakugan, Boruto watched as Mirari and his aunt fighting against the demons. Not able to kill the colossals, they just pushed them back, retreating as they did so. Essentially slowing the heard down. Boruto looked at Sarada and with a heavy heart he told her.  
"Sarada, it's time." Sarada silently nodded, making a hand sign and concentrating her chakra in her right eye. She began to cry blood in that eye before opening it, killing the demons chasing them as well as Mirai and Hanabi._

* * *

 **AS I MENTIONED IN THE NOTE BEFORE I WILL AT ANOTHER POINT IN THIS STORY PRESENT A FLASHBACK THAT DETAILS HOW BORUTO OBTAINED THE BYAKUGAN BETWEEN THE EVENTS OF BORUTO THE MOVIE AND E-DAY. I WAS VERY MUCH HOPING DURING MY OWN VIEWING OF BORUTO THE MOVIE THAT HE WOULD AWAKEN THE BYAKUGAN NEAR THE END OF THE FILM IN A SIMILAR WAY TO HIMAWARI BUT NO SUCH LUCK SO I ADDED IT HERE.**

 **Also going to take this moment to explain two things.**

 **Wind Style: Super Rasen vacuum blast  
Is a jutsu I came up with for a different fanfiction of mine which I scrapped but I decided to use it for Boruto here. The jutsu takes the ability to rotate charka from the first stage of the rasengans development but only rotates chakra in one direction (something Naruto and Boruto were only able to do at first) and applies the second stage of development (power) as well as a change in chakra nature to it. This results in a drill like beam of the given chakra nature with no required hand signs. The 'Super' term comes from the fact that in this instance Boruto creates a larger version of this technique using two hands when he is capable of performing it with only one. **

**I have been receiving questions about the fate of certain characters so I would like to clarify that the** **Kōyō is all that remains of the hidden leaf village and that Kurama was the only thing to survive the Kage summit meeting occurring on E-day.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **Chapter 9**

Himawari made her way from Sarada's office, deciding to go straight home and train in the morning.  
"Are you ok? Himawari." The demon inside her asked.  
"As fine as I could be I guess."  
"You want to see the humanoid for yourself, don't you?"  
"I wouldn't say I want to, I just still can't believe that someone actually planned all this. All this death. I'd need to see them for myself."  
"I see, but trust me. They are real." In her subconscious she went to raise a hand towards the fox but in reality she found herself walking into someone, all she seen was a bunch of packed supplies landing on her.

She stumbled up, picking the supplies up as she did so.  
"Oh my, I am so sorry I didn't mean to I was in a world of my own, literally." She went to hand the supplies to the man she bumped into but she stopped when she seen him.  
"Wait… Aren't you?"  
"Shota, yeah. We were in the academy together." He took the supplies from her, piling them with the supplies he already had.  
"It's so weird huh, there is only a little over a hundred people in this group and we rarely see some of each other." The boy continued.  
"You are pretty cheerful." She questioned, he did have an unusually happy demeanour for this group.  
"Well maybe, but being down doesn't help any of us." He said.  
"And from what I heard, at the beginning people use to call you autumn sunflower because you were the cheery one." He teased, Himawari became red and began fidgeting with her fingers.

"Well I was younger! All I wanted was to see Boruto and Sarada smile again!" She tried to defend herself embarrassingly.  
"Then again, with that new form of yours you actually kind of look like a sunflower haha." Himawari was further embarrassed.  
"Does this boy know that I am right here?" Kurama snapped with Himawari's mind, she turned to him and got even more flustered by what Kurama was implying.  
"Relax Himawari, I'm only messing with you." This didn't help. She took a step back for a moment to compose herself.  
"I think Kurama is the one who needs to relax. I think he was getting ready to kill you." The boy slightly paniced for a moment. Himawari felt a bit better now, having turned the tables.  
"Why?!"  
"He won't admit to it, but he thinks of me like family hehe."  
"Do you remember that I am right here?!" The fox roared at her, she playfully stuck her tongue out at him.

However Himawari found herself on the embarrassed side of things again when her stomach growled for all to hear. She nervously laughed at first but soon found that Shota was handing her some of his food.  
"Hey, what are you doing? I can't take that." She protested.  
"No I insist."  
"Come on, that's your fair share."  
"Yeah but you're the one who risks your life to get us this stuff. So I think you deserve a little extra." He smiled at her before turning to leave. Himawari was awestruck, she didn't think anyone was this selfless anymore.  
"I'll see you around, Himawari." He said with a smile before running off. Her stomach growling again she decided to eat the food he had given her. Enjoying the gratitude and appreciation.

Before long, the next day had begun and Himawari was ready to begin training again. Same as before, she began practicing her gentle fist Kata's while in her tailed best cloak. Same as before however she quickly lost her ability to maintain the form but she was now able to hold it for just over a minute. Despite the setback she went to continue practicing before Kurama interrupted her.  
"Wait, Himawari."  
"What is it Kurama?"  
"I want to show you a new gentle fist technique." She turned her head in confusion.  
"Just watch!" He roared.

" _Shadow clone Jutsu!"A young Naruto shouted, creating many clones of himself. All of these clones stared down against one man, a man with the byakugan. After a moment they all charged at him and commenced an assault. Using his byakugan and superior taijutsu skill he evaded all of them.  
"You think I can be fooled by a trick like that?!" He mocked before sprinting into the herd past dozens of clones. Making straight for specific Naruto at the back of the group he charged past the last of the clones and struck this one in the chest. Naruto began to tremble as the man began to explain his actions.  
"You're the one hiding out of range, for fear of me striking your chakra points, like this. The more the others attack the more you stand out for holding back." Some of the clones began to disappear.  
"You're the real one aren't you?" He stood back from Naruto.  
"I told you it was pointless." Despite this Naruto began laughing.  
"And I told you it a mistake to count me out." Much to his opponents shock, Naruto disappeared, it was only a clone.  
"But how?!"Two more Naruto's jumped out from behind and began descending onto him.  
"You thought I'd be too much of a chicken to attack you myself, well think again!" Naruto felt his fist collide with him but he didn't flinch, instead he began rotating and Naruto found himself being flung back by a rotating chakra wave._

"What was that…" Himawari asked.  
"Rotation, a Hyuga clan technique reserved for the main family. It is a very effective defence technique. It occurred to me during that mission you don't possess any defensive jutsu." Himawari agreed but she couldn't take her eyes off of the young man in this memory.  
"Kurama, is that…"  
"Neji Hyuga, yes." Himawari was shocked, Neji wasn't at all what she imagined, he seemed colder but he was clearly as skilled as her family had told her.  
"Neji was able to teach this technique to himself just by watched it being performed. I am hopeful you can do the same."

 _Again, Naruto created a squad of clones. Surrounding Neji, charging at him from all sides all at once. Neji began rotating again, pushing the Naruto's back and dispelling the clones.  
_ Himawari looked in awe at the incredible technique.  
"Watch this technique closely as well Himawari."  
 _"This is the end for you. You are in range and you can't my eight trigrams." Neji changed his stance to a lower one.  
"Gentle fist art, eight trigrams sixty four palms." Neji finalised his stance before charing straight at Naruto striking him with two blows. Quickly shifting his stance again he struck him four more times, repeating this process until sixty four blows had been struck before Naruto could properly react.  
_"This technique when used on chakra points incapacitates even the most powerful ninja, if used on internal organs it is deadly to anything." Kurama made sure to emphasise the latter part.  
"Now, if we were to add my chakra to these two techniques. They would be near unstoppable." He added.  
"So, I take it Uncle Neji taught himself that technique as well?" She asked.  
"If he can do it, I can do it too right! It's in my blood somewhere datt-…" She stopped herself this time.  
"At least you are trying, unlike your father and brother."

For the next hour, Himawari sat meditating watching this memory again and again. She would enter her tailed beast form when ready. After Himawari believed she had memorised it herself, Kurama began showing her other times he had seen these techniques not just through Naruto's eyes but Kushina's as well. After some more time had passed Himawari stood up, ready to try these techniques for herself. Himawari took a stance, and began releasing chakra from her much of her body's surface area as she could. Almost by accident she started releasing fractions of red chakra as well as blue, feeling content she began turing on the spot. For a moment, the technique appeared to be working however there was a hole in the spinning chakra sphere that was moving in parallel with her right leg. The in balance in chakra caused a resistance in her movement eventually causing her to stumble. As she fell the rotating chakra began pushing her, causing her to spiral away from where she was standing.  
"Himawari! Are you alright?!" Kurama asked, concerned. Himawari laughed as she made her way to her feet.  
"You didn't think I'd get it first time? Did you, Kurama?"


	11. Chapter 10

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 10**

Inojin had taken Sarada and Shikadai to the old hideout they had discovered, the one they intended on making their new base of operations.  
"I can see why you like the idea of his hideout so much Inojin. There is a lot of supplies here, it has more than enough space for us and it is very defendable." Sarada walked around the building, she eventually made her way to the room where they concluded that a 'humanoid' had been here. She looked around at the mounted bows, and into the pool of arrows on the ground. Her eyes narrowed.  
"Also, if a humanoid has been here. I would find it unlikely one would return anytime soon. What did you do with the bodies? Inojin?"  
"We buried them about a mile north of here. With Himawari's new powers it didn't take long to dig the graves."  
"What do you think, Shikadai?"  
"I agree with you Sarada, I think it would be best if we moved our people here soon. Espically since we are welcoming Chocho and her people to use. The extra space and supplies are more important than normally."

"Sorry, could we interrupt?" An unknown voice said, from behind a doorway. Inojin and Shikadai jumped infront of Sarada with weapons ready.  
"Who's there?!" Sarada barked, having taken her own defensive stance.  
"I'm not sure if you will remember me, Sarada Uchiha. It's been about three years since we last saw each other." The ninja opened the door, walking out with his arms raised and two of his colleagues followed closely behind. Sarada looked at the man closely, he was about her age and he did look familiar.  
"Wait, we fought in chunin exams didn't we? Saiku was your name right? From the hidden mist" She asked.  
"Yes, I am surprised you remember me. Given how quickly you defeated me."  
"You sound a little annoyed, don't tell me you're actually here for a rematch. In this setting?" She mocked.  
"No, of course not. I probably couldn't defeat you anyway." Despite his reassuring words he still seemed angry.

"So what does bring you here, I take it you are hidden mist survivors?" Inojin asked, putting his weapons away, back into his tattoos.  
"Yes, and we are here because we here last time you were. Inojin." Inojin was taken aback for a moment, paranoia was a common trait these days, and he was uncomfortable that someone had spied on him previously.  
"I am sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, we commonly use a chakra disruption technique when on scouting missions. I am sure you aware not all surviving factions are… as civil as we are both being." They all nodded, it was an understatement. The Kōyō was one of the larger surviving factions so they didn't commonly get attacked but the scouting patrols had been ambushed, a lot.  
"We were going to leave you be, but then we overheard you and your' comrades discussing… a certain matter."  
"The humanoids…."  
"Not just that, you mentioned they weren't of this world. You clearly know more about what happened that day than we do."

Sarada and the others looked to each other, and began discussing among themselves what course of action they should take.  
"Look, I am aware that things are not what they were three years ago. But we are both surviving factions of nations that were once allies. Our leader, Lord Seph is interested in forming an alliance between our factions. We will assist you in scouting and gaining supplies as well as giving you any intelligence we can provide. In exchange you will tell us all you know about this demon army."  
"You must let me speak to my advisors privately, unfortunately only one of them is present. I will send a messenger to meet with you tomorrow. Inojin, suggest a location please." Sarada replied.  
"Do you know the canyon at the base of Silver Mountain?" He asked, one of the mist ninja nodded.  
"Good, I and the rest of our scouts will meet you there tomorrow. Just after noon."  
"As you wish." With this the former mist ninja took their leave.

In the following hours, Sarada and the others arrived back at the Kōyō and met Jinsho in Sarada's office.  
"So Jinsho, how did you get on as acting leader for a few hours? I'm glad to see the place is still here." Shikadai teased his younger friend. Jinsho didn't react, not in any noticeable way that is.  
"How was the new base? Sarada." Shikadai was probably more annoyed at the dismissal than Jinsho was at the initial comment.  
"I think it will suit our needs perfectly, however we have another issue that could be more pressing." Sarada answered, before beginning to explain what had happened.  
"Another surviving faction? They want an alliance?" Jinsho spoke, clearly paranoid and uncertain.  
"I feel this is too good to be true, Sarada. How do we know they aren't interested in taking the supplies we do have? What if this is a trap so they can learn out abilities?"" He continued.  
"You're right, but we can't deny that there is strength in numbers. And I…. I think lord seventh would have done it." She said nervously. Inojin was obviously frustrated by this, he went to reach out to Sarada but Jinsho moved between them and grabbed his wrist.  
"Something to say, Inojin?" He asked.  
"Jinsho! Let go of him!" Sarada ordered.

"Sarada… you can't think about what lord seventh would do, you are the one in charge now!" Inojin snapped, this wasn't just because of what was happening with Sarada. It was true that he was frustrated with how she sometimes struggled with decisions like this and how she depended on the teachings of a long gone era but he was also angry at himself, for his inability to sense the mist ninja watching them. Sarada didn't falter, in fact she displayed more confidence than she had done in the entire debate.  
"You're wrong Inojin. The teachings of the past, are what will allow us to survive. Or don't you remember our academy classes." Inojin yielded, despite his frustration. This encounter brought a smile to Sarada's face, it reminded her of the rivalry she and Inojin shared back in the days of the hidden leaf village.

 _3 years ago, during the chunin exams that brought promotion to Sarada's entire team they had just entered the final round of the exams. Inojin found himself faced off against a stone ninja, who was an older genin than himself, likely more experienced too. Inojin had only recently developed his armed ninja tattoo technique and was just now displaying its powers, having caught the stone ninja off guard with his ink blade. On Inojins forearm he possessed several ink shuriken tattoos, which he was able to throw rapidly.  
"That's an interesting adaption of your technique Sai, did he come up with that himself?" Sakura asked her old team mate.  
"Yes, he didn't even need my help to create the technique. He is truly gifted." As the fight went on, Inojin used his super beast scroll as a distraction and was finally able to graze his opponent with his ink blade. Having done this Inojin found a massive arrogant smile forming on his face, much like his mothers. Following this he dispelled his jutsu and took two kunai and suddenly the turn of the fight had changed. Inojin was dodging every attack with perfect timing, and countering with similar perfection. Sarada, sitting by her mother's side grew confused.  
'It's like… he has the sharingan.'  
"Impressive." Sasuke commented aloud, greatly shocking everyone around him, including Inojin's own parents.  
"Sasuke?" Sai asked, nervously so. Even at this age, Sasuke rarely complimented anyone.  
"You didn't notice?" Everyone shook their heads.  
"Think about it, after he struck him with the sword he suddenly knew every move his opponent was going to make." Sasuke explained and at first no one followed, but soon Ino exclaimed aloud.  
"That boy, he never ceases to amaze me."  
"What is it Ino?"  
"The ink, it had his chakra in it. He is using it as a catalyst for his Yamanaka clan techniques." Ino explained properly, unlike Sasukes prior vague comments.  
"Wait, so he is…"  
"Reading that ninja's mind, yes." Both Sakura and Sarada turned to watch Inojin dance around this stone ninja like he was nothing.  
"I'm telling you Sai, our boy is going to be the hokage." Ino cheered, as Sarada began to get frustrated. _

As bleak as things were now, it was good that there was still a small sense of rivalry between the two of them.  
"Jinsho, seeing as you are my second in my command I want you to go with Inojin and Himawari to meet with the mist survivors, arrange a meeting between me and this Seph." Sarada ordered, to which Jinsho happily agreed and Inojin a little less happily. Jinsho approached the area where Himawari had been training and found the area littered in holes that had been burrowed in the training attempts.  
"Himawari!" Jinsho shouted, before Himawari came out from behind some trees.  
"Jinsho? What's up?"  
"We have a mission, could you meet me and Inojin at the north lookout tomorrow morning?"  
"We? You're coming?" She said, shocked.  
"Yes, is that so surprising?"  
"Well we were meant to be in the same genin squad, but I don't think we've been on any missions together."  
"Hm. I think you could be right Himawari, we need a fourth member for the mission if you find someone I would be grateful."


	12. Chapter 11

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 11**

Sarada walked through the trees, her nerves distracting her from her surroundings. On one side she had Inojin and on the other she had Himawari. They were on their way to meet this group of hidden mist survivors to share knowledge about how the world ended and with the hope of forming an alliance with them. Sarada was terrified, she was representing her people in a way she had never done before. Whenever she tried to calm herself down she had to stop herself from thinking about the thing that hurt her most, she was acting like the hokage. She kept turning to Himawari, who was just smiling at her, and that helped.

During the time of the shinobi union it was proposed that each of the five great nations had embassies for the other five nations not only in the ninja villages but at strategic locations around the countries and it was one of these locations that was chosen for the meeting between these two surviving factions. It was Sarada's idea, she hoped that the history behind this location would help her build a relationship with these people. The meaning behind this location however didn't quite make up for its condition, presumably some refugees had taken shelter here before they were set upon. And killed.

"Ah, Miss Uchiha. You are early." The head of this mist faction said, as Sarada entered the room. He didn't seem much older than Sarada but he was taller and had white hair. Sarada saw many similarities between him and another mist ninja she knew before the invasion, a friend of her fathers. Sarada found it odd that one of his guards was obviously older than he was but she knew that appearances weren't everything.  
"You are even earlier, Lord Seph." They shook hands and sat down at one of the old tables.  
"So before we discuss any possible alliance I would prefer if we share our information with one another."  
"I agree, what would you like to know first?"

"When my men overheard your ninja talking in the old stone hideout they said they heard you mention a survivor from the last ever kage summit?"  
"Yes we do, but it wasn't a ninja who survived." Seph raised an eyebrow.  
"It was Kurama, the nine tailed demon fox. Up until that day, he was sealed in the seventh hokage."  
"You have a tailed beast?!"  
"Yes, one of my ninja is currently his new jinchuriki."  
"And he seen these 'humanoids' through the eyes of the seventh hokage?"  
"Yes, he saw them… kill the five kage." She said, trying not to look at Himawari in case she gave away her identity but Himawari's downhearted expression was doing that on its own.  
"My god, we have always assumed that the demons were mindless beasts. Which brings me to my next question, we are aware that the demons don't have any chakra but your ninja said that was because they aren't of this world?"  
"Yes, this is where things get a little complicated."

"Complicated? Complicated how?"  
"For centuries there had been rumours of a disembodied intelligence that had been manipulating ninja into doing its bidding, do you know these stories?" Sarada asked the man, who was clearly clueless.  
"Well, for centuries these rumours were considered to be just that, rumours. But three years after the fourth great ninja war they were confirmed to be true. This disembodied intelligence, who turned out to being a soul from another reality took control of my father's body and used his powers combined with a massive chakra source to break back into his own reality. The mother of my friend here, Himawari, was with my father that day and she fell into that other reality."  
"Wait, what? Another reality?"  
"I don't understand it completely, but it was explained to me that there are countless universes that exist simultaneously but are separated by something called the void. On E-day, when the sky opened Himawari's mother said that what she seen behind the demons was the void." Seph turned to the ninja at either side of him, looking only further confused.  
"How have we never heard of this before?"  
"When this soul broke back into his own reality it began to collide with our own risking the existence of both. Working together with the people of that reality the seventh hokage was able to un-do the breach between them but in doing so it erased the events of what had happened. Only those who had crossed the void retained the memory of what happened."  
"So you heard all of this from Himawari's mother?"  
"No… She died during the invasion. However her aunt who survived had previously heard the entire story."

"Oh… I see. I am sorry for your loss, Himawari." Seph turned to look at her, she smiled and nodded in return.  
"I suppose it's time we share some of our intelligence." He carried on.  
"That thing that caused the massacare at the old hidden stone outpost? We have been tracking it for a few weeks now."  
"You have?!"  
"Yes, we assumed it was just a very powerful ninja, surviving on his or her own. But your story seems more likely."  
"Have you ever laid eyes on it?"  
"One of our scouts did once. Apparently it wears a white helmet and a cloak so we don't really know what it looks like. We just know that it is incredibly powerful."  
"Where did you first encounter it?"  
"Eh, a few miles north of here. Near the abandoned mining station."  
"When?! When exactly?!" Himawari burst out, tears in her eyes. Seph was taken aback at first, but he didn't let the anger from his disrespect get to him.  
"Maybe about seven weeks ago, we had been tracking its movements between the villages for a while when our ninja saw some massive explosions. By the time they arrived there however all they found was death." Himawari turned and stared at Sarada who slowly turned to look back.  
"Is something wrong?"  
"We lost Himawari's brother about seven weeks ago, when he went on a scouting mission near the abandoned mining station." Sarada explained, as Himawari left the room.

Himawari ran back into the trees, tears flooding her eyes as thoughts flooded her mind. She kept thinking about the last time she seen Boruto. For some reason the fact that he was killed by a humanoid and not some random demon just made it worse for her. Before she knew it, she was in her nine tails state, partially transforming creating nine tails and using them to slam trees into the ground. She continued to scream in anger until she could no longer maintain the form. Falling to her knees in tears.


	13. Chapter 12

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 12**

Two days later, having returned to the Kōyō Himawari had immediately returned to her training area and hadn't left, for those entire two days. Himawari was covered in scratches and bruises from her extensive training, still attempting to perfect the rotation. The young man she had met in the days prior approached her area and was shocked to see the state of it, broken trees and burrowed ground.  
"Himawari?" Shota asked, concerned. Himawari didn't turn to face him, she sent four chakra arms into the air using them to grab nearby branches before snapping them off the trees and throwing them at herself. As the branches approached her she released her chakra and began spinning, deflecting the branches but having released too much chakra from some of her chakra points she was pushed out of her chakra orb and sent flying into a nearby rock.

"Himawari?!" Shota ran towards her but she stood up and raising her hand, signally him to stay away.  
"Himawari, are you not even going to look at me now?"  
"I am, looking at you." She said, coldly. He was confused for a moment before remembering that she had the byakugan and that this was one its capabilities.  
"I went looking for you when you came back from your mission, I heard from someone you'd been spending a lot of time here training."  
"So?" She snapped.  
"Maybe you could use a break?"  
"You sound like Kurama." The demon fox had been trying for two days without any success to get the young girl to take a break but she was just so angry. She repeated her exercise and again she fell to ground. She repeated again but this time, due to exhaustion she fell before spinning, leaving the branches flying at her. Shota threw several knifes, deflecting them.  
"Come on, you need a break." He pulled her up from the ground and helped her to the last intact tree in the area and handing her a bottle of water.

"So, what's bothering you?" He asked, but unfortunately even if she wanted to she couldn't tell him. Not everyone in the Kōyō knew about the humanoids existence, only the Kōyō leadership and scouting ninja, it was decided to keep it this way to avoid a panic.  
"This other ninja faction we've found, they had information about Boruto's death." She answered, taking a drink of water from the bottle he gave her.  
"Oh, so that's why you're killing yourself out here."  
"Yeah, for the first few weeks after Boruto died I… all my darkest thoughts just took over me. I was lost in my own grief but now… when I heard what they had to say I just got so angry!" She began clenching her fists.  
"You know, once you've had some rest. You might want to ask Kabuto for help, just looking at the training you're doing his ability would make it quite a bit easier eh?" Himawari turned, grateful that he changed the subject.  
"Yeah, thank you Shota."  
"Right come on, let me walk you home."

Jinsho walked through the streets towards Sarada's office, knocking when he arrived. Following the first meeting between the two ninja factions Seph invited Sarada to visit their base however at Jinsho's request he went in her place.  
"Enter. Jinsho, how was your trip?" She asked.  
"Impressive to be sure, they are a lot more secure than we are." He said, at which he point began describing their base, if you could call it that. The group of mist survivors who had taken to calling themselves the Yoake had made their home atop giant summoning animals, giant crocodiles. Using very impressive engineering and construction they had built buildings atop the backs of the crocodiles, concealing the buildings within domes allowing the entire civilisation they had built to hide underneath the water. Also while Sarada was one of the oldest ninja in the Kōyō the Yoake had many ninja in their mid-twenties as well as some retired ninja and because of their mobile base they had managed to keep many more civilians alive.  
"If they have older ninja, why is this Seph their leader?"  
"I asked them that myself, apparently Seph is the most powerful ninja they have. They, like you are continuing to stick to some traditions of the five nations. Hence the alliance they are proposing." He explained, Sarada smiled at this she felt like she could really bridge the gap between these two factions, like the seventh did for all the villages. Maybe then she could forgive herself.

"As a gesture of good faith, they are offering to help us in our relocation."  
"You don't sound sold on this alliance, Jinsho."  
"Can you blame me, how many shinobi factions have attacked us in the last three years? Why would they risk how stable they are to help us?"  
"Did you discover any evidence they were lying to us?"  
"No, but I recommend that we remain sceptical during the course of this alliance." Sarada nodded, she knew that everyone was paranoid but she also knew that ignoring Jinsho was a bad idea, he was the most intelligent ninja in the Kōyō.

Himawari lay down on her bed, finally relaxing she felt herself drifting away into sleep but was interrupted by Kurama.  
"You know, I think I like that guy. Himawari."  
"You like someone, that's rare, Kurama ahaha."  
"Well he seems to have calmed you down, that's good."  
"He looks at me differently than everyone else here, like a normal person. Sarada always looks at me like she owes me something, and everyone else has just been tip toeing around me since Boruto died." She explained, almost blushing as she did so.  
"Himawari, I'm sorry about Boruto. If I was stronger, I could have saved him."  
"What are you talking about?"  
"When your grandfather sealed me within your father he originally only sealed half of me, sealing the other half in himself. For some time there was two of me, after the entirety of my being was sealed within your father we were able to split my body in two at will. It wasn't until I was removed from your father that I realised I needed a jinchuriki to do that, or I'd have sealed myself in both of you. And then Boruto would still be…."  
"Kurama stop, dad wouldn't blame you for Boruto's death." She rolled over in the foxes fur, rubbing into to comfort him.  
"And I don't either. You're going to help me get Boruto, my father, my mother… you're going to help me get them justice." Kurama nodded at the girl.  
"First thing tomorrow morning, we go see Kabuto and we continue training."


	14. Chapter 13

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **So I've spent a while on this chapter and the previous chapter and to be honest I am still not happy with them. So I am likely to update these chapters later on when I have time, but the events will remain more or less the same.**

 **Chapter 13**

In the following days, Himawari continued her training with Kabuto Uchiha's assistance similar to the way Neji had mastered the same technique with Tenten's assistance. Despite the endless practice she had yet to successfully perform the technique. Even when she deflected all of his weapons she still damaged herself due to her imperfect technique. However, eventually on Sarada's order she stopped her training to begin the relocation to their newest base of operations. As the last byakugan user, she was in charge of scouting the route a head and assuring its safety. Inojin and Jinsho were in charge of security, making sure everyone was in line and that nothing was coming at them from any other direction. Back in the day, when they had three byakugan users this was a lot easier.

While Jinsho was usually in charge of security, this time he had another reason for being there. They had extra man power assisting them, this Yoake had offered to help in the spirit of cooperation and Jinsho did not trust them. Near the front of the pilgrimage, Sarada was accompanied by Seph who had insisted on supervising his men personally. He had his own guards positioned alongside the Kōyō's providing the extra security although this hardly seemed needed. The entire trip they hadn't encountered a single demon, no normal demons, no colossal demons, no metal skins. Nothing.

Even Himawari, who was joined by Seph's right hand, Hakkigetsu hadn't seen a single demon while scouting a head. It didn't feel right, this had never happened before, the Kōyō had extra people now plus they were being assisted by even more people. This was the largest their group had been in years and not a demon in sight. The calm before the storm, that was what everyone believed was going on.  
"This really is weird, I've never been on a scout and seen this little." Himawari turned to her foreign companion who seemed to be extremely calm.  
"Don't jinx it girl, we still have a way to go." He snapped, coldly.  
"So much for conversation." Himawari muttered under her breath. Looking into the distance, she could see the base now and still no threats. In the hours that followed they finally arrived at their new home.  
"Ok, let's circle back. Make sure nothing comes up behind us." Directing the ink birds given to them by Inojin they turned around, making their way to the end of the pilgrimage.

Himawari was not a fan of her newest travelling companion, he was silent and cold. Even when he introduced himself to her, it felt like he wasn't interested in her existence at all. There was also an oddity to the way he was dressed, he carried a long bow but no arrows. Himawari noticed in the distance a small band of demons devouring some animals, however they didn't seem to sense in any way the large shinobi pilgrimage. Himawari turned off her byakugan for a moment, feeling that her eyes needed to rest. Himawari suddenly felt some skin irritation, her breath becoming visible. She quickly turned to Hakkigetsu to see what was happening but was forced off of the ink bird by a sudden gust of cold wind.

"This has been too easy." Sarada turned to Seph as they walked into the new base, somewhat paranoid but also suspicious. Seph laughed at her a little, turning to her with a very relaxed smile.  
"Count your blessings miss Uchiha. You won't get many victories this easily in this world. We should have all of your people inside shortly."  
"So Jinsho mentioned that you live on mobile underwater bases? That must be a lot easier than this."  
"Ah yes l- my crocodiles. They are very useful, as long as we allow them to hunt when they need to. The fact they can go extended periods of time without eating is helpful." Sarada noticed his hesitation and it made her uncomfortable with him.  
"Is everything ok, Seph?" He had a sweat on his brow, slipping slowly down his face.  
"I apologise, Sarada. I am quite nervous. We haven't had a lot of a successful interactions with Shinobi factions. If it wasn't for your knowledge of the enemy we would have probably avoided you."

Suddenly a young Kōyō ninja burst through the doors, panicked and afraid. He almost fell as he opened the door, trying to stop his rush.  
"Miss Sarada! Himawari was attacked!"  
"What?! Is she ok?"  
"We don't know, whatever hit her was invisible."  
"Alright, get Inojin I'll head out after her."  
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Seph said, bringing a kunai out. Sarada turned back to him, but quickly span round again as her younger compainion was knocked out by a Yoake ninja. Suddenly Seph made a hand sign and the doors in the room closed with seals appearing all around. He then took out a scroll which filled the floor with water.

"Sarada!" Jinsho ran to the outside of the door and began knocking to no avail. Quickly, two Yoake ninja arrived at his side armed with swords.  
'Seph had ninja waiting here to ambush us upon arrival…' he thought to himself, raising his arms. Downstairs, at the entrance to the compound more ninja appeared, much to the shock of the Kōyō ninja and civilians. One Yoake ninja stood out from among the others.  
"Ninja of the Kōyō, don't try anything foolish, remain calm and no harm will come to you." He said, unconvincingly.

Back in the main room, Sarada stared at the man across from her.  
"What do you think you are doing Seph?" She demanded, taking a much more prepared stance.  
"I'm afraid to admit this, but I am not Seph Yuki. I am Hakkigetsu Hozuki."  
"So if you are Hakkigetsu… then…"  
"Yes, Lord Seph is with Himawari. I don't know why he made his move so early but I am not here to question. I am here to kill you." Hakkigetsu took out his old hidden mist headband and tightened it around his head like a blindfold to avoid getting caught in Sarada's genjutsu.

Back in the outside world, Himawari landed in a small canyon. Seph having destroyed the ink bird he was flying on, landed at the top of the canyon, with his bow in hand.  
"What are you doing, Hakkigetsu!?"  
"My name is not Hakkigetsu, I am Seph Yuki." He said pulling back his bow string.  
"What? Am I meant to be scared of a bow with no arrows?" Himawari mocked before she saw the chakra flowing to the tip of his bow and the ice forming around the chakra.  
"Hm, you asked for arrows?"


	15. Chapter 14

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **Chapter 14**

Within the main hall, the Kōyō shuffled about in improvement at the hands of the Yoake. Some of the younger ninja drew their knives but were too afraid to do anything while some of the older more experienced ninja such as Inojin, Shikadai and Kabuto counted their enemies. Following their analysis they met up, in the centre of their new 'home'. Some of their other friends, such as Tokuma and Chocho joined their friends in the centre.  
"Well? What do you think?" Tokuma asked, looking to the older ninja.  
"This was a set-up, these ninja were stationed here waiting on us arriving." Shikadai explained, looking around at the enemy above them.  
"So, what should we do? I could take them out." Kabuto activated his sharingan but Shikadai quickly covered his eyes.  
"Shikadai?! What are you doing?!" Tokuma tried to pull his arm down but Inojin stopped him.  
"Think about it, they separated Sarada and Himawari. They are after their dojutsu. We can't let them know about Kabuto's."  
"So what are we going to do?! Just sit here and wait for them to kill Sarada and Himawari?!" Chocho argued, louder than the others were comfortable with.  
"We don't have to do anything Chocho, they have no idea what they are in for." Inojin said, eerily calm.

"Inojin… do you mean?"  
"Yes. Jinsho's charka is fluctuating." Inojin smiled/  
"Fluctuating?"  
"Yes, it's going from undetectable too high in an amazing way."  
"What does that mean?!" Chocho asked, irritated at how she knew nothing about the situation.  
"I can sense that he is with two yoake ninja, but if he's doing this with his Chakra, that's him telling me he has a plan."  
"Who is Jinsho? I didn't know him in the hidden leaf."  
"That's because you were visiting your family in the hidden cloud when he became big news, Chocho. He was one of the two ninja assigned to Himawari's genin team alongside Tokuma here. But, his performance in the academy was so extraordinary that four of his academy instructors made special requests that he graduated, as a chunin." Shikadai explained, with a hint of jealous in his voice.

Jinsho walked alongside the two yoake ninja, one of them had used the water style water whip to bind Jinsho at his hands. One of them took their sword and hit Jinsho in the back, telling him to walk faster. In the moment somehow Jinsho got out of his restraint, bringing his elbow back into the ninja's face. As the first ninja recoiled back Jinsho brought his leg around to kick the second but he wasn't fast enough. Not letting up Jinsho tried to punch the ninja but again his attack was blocked but this time he was knocked down. The first ninja got back up and kicked Jinsho in the chest.  
"You piece of trash, don't you try that again." He kicked Jinsho again, before pulling him up off of the ground.  
"Let's get this guy to the others, bind him." He nodded to his comrade.  
"Yes sir. I can't believe Sarada Uchiha has an idiot like this as her second in command, what a weak stupid move." The man mocked, but surprisingly Jinsho just laughed at him.

"Jinsho was to graduate as a chunin?! Had that ever happened before?" Chocho asked, shocked.  
"Not that I am aware, I know they were to get the Hokage's blessing before proceeding." Shikai again, jealous. Shikadai may have inherited his father's intelligence but he also inherited a competitive side from his mother and he hated that Jinsho was smarter than him.  
"So how does this help us?" Chocho asked.  
"Jinsho has some very specific abilities, they may not be very useful for fighting against demons but…"  
"You have it wrong. You should be asking, 'why would Sarada Uchiha's second in command do something so seemingly stupid." Jinsho said, as the man made his hand signs but to his horror his jutsu didn't work. In the confusion Jinsho was this time able to knock both men down. The men stared at Jinsho in horror as their Jutsu failed them.  
"Go on, look at your hands." Jinsho raised his arms, pointing his hands at them. The men looked at their hands, then quickly looked back at Jinsho before everything went black for them.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The men screamed, echoing back into the main hall where the Kōyō were held.  
"After Sarada and Himawari, Jinsho is probably the strongest when it comes to fighting other ninja." Tokuma finshed his explanation.

Sarada ran towards her opponent, he didn't move. Sarada new that despite the fact he had put on a blindfold that somehow he could sense her and could still fight but the only way she was going to figure out how was to fight. Even as she punched him he didn't move, but his body wasn't struck he decomposed into water. Sarada went straight through the water, she turned back quickly expecting him to reform from the same water but he came from the water behind her, kicking her in the back of the head into the ground.  
"Now I see, you filled the room with water in order to sense my movements through it, and to reconstruct yourself from anywhere in the room." Sarada explained outloud to herself. She smirked, having an idea. She took her fist and struck the floor, expecting it to cave under her tremendous strength but instead it seemed to ripple. The seals in the room, they were designed to hold her. The mist ninja she fought in the chunin exams, he must have remembered her abilities. She looked around the room, she couldn't use her fire style to evaporate the water, not in a room this small. She couldn't use her susano for offence at all and her right eye was definitely out of the question. She realised her best option was to cut off the extended sense of touch he was using to fight her in the first place.

Sarada jumped up onto the ceiling, where there was no water for him to use on her. At first he seemed confused, but then he smiled. As he made a hand sign Sarada felt a powerful chakra ripping through her body and knocking her off the wall. Taking out a knife, he jumped up to where he heard her scream in pain. Sarada smiled, having screaming on purpose to draw his attention she span round and kicked him in the head but again he just turned to water.

Elsewhere Himawari, using her byakugan easily evaded the ice arrows being fired at her, she watched him over time. After the fifth arrow there was a time delay, like he had to take a moment to prepare himself. She realised the maximum amount of arrows he could fire in rapid succession was five, this time after evading the fifth arrow she entered her nine tailed chakra mode. Using her enhanced speed she closed the distance between them in an instant she went to strike him but she found herself sliding past him, he had leaked his ice style chakra into the ground in-case she was able to close the distance.  
"Damnit, that was so stupid. I should have seen the ice on the ground!" Himawari said cursing herself.  
"Heh, that's something your father would have done when he was your age. Pay more attention Himawari." Kurama cautioned.

"So it's true. You are a jinchuriki." Seph laughed, seemingly revelling in the prospect of fighting a jinchuriki.  
"What of it?" Himawari snapped.  
"It's funny. Himawari Uzumaki, the last jinchuriki. Sounds like a story title hhahaha"  
"You're insane."  
"You know, we have a bit in common. While not in the same league as Naruto Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze, my father and grandfather were also heroes in the third and fourth great ninja wars. In fact, if it wasn't for your grandfather, my grandfather would have lead the hidden mist village to victory in the third great ninja war. You see, my grandfather was the master of a secret Yuki clan jutsu. The hidden mist have jutsu to create mist and rain, but this jutsu. Hm. It isn't fair to compare. Following my grandfather's death, at the hands of your grandfather, the fourth Mizukage began the great kekki kenkai purge of the hidden mist. Out of fear to this jutsu. This jutsu struck fear in the heart of the fourth mizukage, and master jinchuriki." He began making hand signs.  
"As much as I wanted to fight Sarada Uchiha, I realised I couldn't trust anyone else to fight you, that only this jutsu would have a chance of stopping you." He finished his hand signs, and thrust an open palm into the air.  
"Yuki clan secret technique, Storm Summoning; White nightmare!"


	16. Chapter 15

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 15**

Himawari felt a cold grip around her, her breath flowing in front of her eyes. Seph's jutsu had created a massive storm cloud, from that storm cloud snow began to fall. While slowly at first it became heavy, hard. The wind thrusted it down towards the ground and before long Himawari found herself in a full scale blizzard. While she felt colder, slower Seph seemed unaffected likely to being an ice style user. Taking his bow once again he formed a new ice arrow, aiming it at Himawari. Once the arrow left the bow and as it glided through the air the snow and frost gathered around it causing the arrow to grow in size. Himawari watched as this happened, her shock not leaving her enough time to dodge properly forcing her to dive onto the ground nearby. Landing face on the ground she was able to avoid the arrow, but through her byakugan she could see the second arrow coming. In her panic she felt a strange lack of control in her chakra. A massive chakra tail sprouted from her before it swiped the arrow off its course.

'Thanks Kurama' Himawari said, jumping back into a proper stance.  
'Be ready for anything Himawari, this guy has a startling advantage, by using this storm summoning he can now use massive ice style jutsu with very little chakra.' Kurama explained, lending his extensive battle experience to the younger ninja. Himawari stepped things up, going from her nine tails chakra mode into tailed beast mode. Using the massive chakra avatar Himawari made her way towards Seph.  
"You think this storm can stop us?" She taunted, but he didn't seem to respond. Making a new series of hand signs, parts of the snow storm began to converge in front of Himawari.  
"Ice style, frost giant!" The snow converged into the form of some sort of ice golem which swung its arm around striking the fox avatar. Kurama staggered back, using the byakugan provided by his jinchuriki he seen a second giant ice avatar forming behind him. Taking one of his tails with a single swipe he prevented the creation of the golem whilst simultaneously bringing his arm up to defend himself from the first one.  
"Kurama look out!" Himawari warned the fox, three massive ice arrows burst through the ice golem and into them. Kurama found himself pinned to the ground by the arrows piercing him, three more giant ice golems appeared and striking into them.

"Himawari?! What's going on? Shouldn't we have been able to see those arrows long before they struck us?!" Kurma asked in between the blows.  
"It's this storm, it's filled with chakra, its hindering my byakugan." The massive chakra avatar began to fade, slowly. Seeing this, Himawari recalled the chakra back into her body to conserve strength. Reverting back into her nine tails chakra mode she used her speed to escape back into the cover of the storm.  
"Do you think we could use your tails to stop this storm?" She asked him.  
"No, this storm is far too big. We need to close the distance, if you can strike him even once."  
"But how are we meant to do that?! With him controlling every bit of ice all around us."

Hakkigetsu ran towards Sarada, knives in hand. Sarada using her eyes was easily able to dodge the knives and striking through him again. This time however as her body passed through the water the water wrapped itself around her head, forcing her to hold her breath. Sarada felt her panic rise, if she opened her mouth she might drown. Hakkigetsu ran back towards her, trying to dodge in her current situation left her vulnerable causing him to land a small cut on her back. She let out a small cry in pain, forcing the water into her throat. It was worse than drowning, the water burned her insides. It was his chakra. Sarada made serval hand signs, using a small fire style jutsu to evaporate the water in her throat and around her head. Once free she jumped into the air and threw two shuriken towards her opponent, they arced around behind him colliding before one of them struck him in the back while the other one struck the wall but like everything else it went straight through him.

Hakkigetsu attacked, again. This time realising dodging was futile. She decided to create a stalemate, she activated her mangekyou sharingan. Creating the glowing white ribcage around herself she found herself safe from his attacks. Hakkigetsu was shocked, he couldn't see what she had used to defend herself but it didn't matter. He turned his entire body into water, a hand came out at Sarada's feet and struck her ankle causing her to fall to the ground. The Susano rib cage faded and she was kicked across the room.  
"Even though this entire battle was planned with foreknowledge of your skills, I expected more. Sarada Uchiha." He picked up the knives from the ground, ready to finish her off.

"I don't get it, the guard's we sent after Jinsho should have been past here ages ago with him." One ninja said to another.  
"Can you sense their chakra?" The other replied, looking similarly puzzled.  
"Yeah, they seem to have went the completely wrong direction. The idiots must have forgot the base layout." The two continued, when walking past a particular room they heard water splashing, Sarada screaming and a thud against the wall. They continued on before they reached the room where one of them sensed their comrade's chakra. They opened the door, nothing. Just dark. One of them took out a small lighter and lit a torch as they walked into the room. Still dark.  
"That's weird."  
"Yeah… how is the light not working?"  
"Simple." Jinsho answered, from outside the room.  
"What's going on? I thought you said you could sense his chakra from inside this room? Along with the others?!"  
"I can!"  
"Look closer." Jinsho said. The man concentrated on his chakra sensing for a moment, he could no longer feel his comrade's chakra but Jinsho's wasn't just in front of them; it was all around them. The man panicked he began looking all around him.  
"What's wrong?!" His comrade asked.  
"This room it-."  
"It isn't dark." Jinsho finished his sentence, as the 'shadows' in the room closed around the other two ninja who began screaming.

The screams, like before echoed through the mostly silent building back into the main hall.  
"What the hell is going on?" One Yoake ninja asked. While none of his comrades answered, across the room one of the Kōyō answered the same question.  
"Jinsho just took down another two." Inojin explained.  
"You said he had a plan? Is he just going to kill these guys two a time? They will start killing us eventually!" Chocho answered, but she didn't seem to panic her friends at all. In fact, they laughed at her.  
"Jinsho isn't killing them." Shikadai explained. Chocho was prepared to ask more questions when Jinsho walked into the room. All the ninja present, Yoake and Kōyō alike turned to face him. Some with hope, some with weapons.  
"Stand down, and we won't hurt your comrades." One warned Jinsho. Jinsho raised his arms, slowly. As one ninja slowly lowered his weapon and approached Jinsho a black mass rushed into the air.  
"Wait… those are…"  
"Yup."  
"So when you said he wasn't killing them… you meant he was taking their chakra. He's one of…" Chocho finally realised everything. Jinsho started making hand signs.  
"Aburame clan secret technique: shadow hive jutsu!" The mass of insects released a puff of smoke, and the insects had multiplied exponentially filling the room and surrounding all the Yoake ninja.

Amongst the screaming, Jinsho addressed the Yoake ninja.  
"Ninja of the Yoake, I am Jinsho Aburame of the Kōyō, now lay down your arms. Assuming you want to leave here alive." The Yoake ninja looked to one another, hoping one of them could raise their moral or provide a way out of this scenario. To no avail. Eventually they lay their arms on the ground.  
"Good." Despite this Jinsho nodded to his insects to consume their chakra, thus incapacitating them.  
"Harsh as always, Jinsho." Inojin remarked, jumping up next to his friend.  
"The situation calls for drastic measures. I sent some insects to check on Himawari, she was attacked shortly before this went down, presumably by the Yoake ninja that was with her but they never returned. Also, there was a seal surrounding the room they have Sarada in. My insects couldn't penetrate that either."  
"So what's the plan?" Jinsho didn't answer.  
"Jinsho?"  
"I guess if Sarada was here. She'd say we would have to have faith in them." He answered, making his way to ensure the condition of his people.


	17. Chapter 16

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **Chapter 16**

Himawari had reformed her fox avatar, after knocking down more of Seph's frost giants Kurama began creating massive gusts to try and dispel the storm. Each time they swiped a tail Seph made a hand sign which created a wave of snow of near equal force. They were soon forced to dodge more arrows, almost instantly more frost giants appeared around them. Himawari left her fox form and began running along the surface of her enemies' body. She jumped from giant to giant before making one last leap towards Seph.  
"Ice style, ice wall." As Himawari closed the distance a massive ice wall appeared between them. Himawari partially transformed and wrapped herself in Kurama's tails to protect herself from the force of hitting into the ice wall.

"Damn it! What the hell are we meant to do?!" Himawari cursed, pulling herself out of the snow.  
"Calm down Himawari. If we are going to win this you need to calm down." Himawari started taking deeper breathes trying to slow her heart rate but through her unique eyes should see the frost giants closing in. Using her enhanced speed she was able to dodge the attacks but this time the ice and snow caused her to fall. She skidded across the ground before she hit into the leg of one of the ice giants. Seph smiled at this, and had his giants begin striking her into the ground. After the third strike Himawari felt her consciousness begin to fade, through a near primal urge to protect his new jinchuriki he took control of her body and made his way back into cover. Using Himawari's hands he made a hand sign to concentrate their combined chakra into healing her wounds faster. Through the pants and groans Himawari was able to ask Kurama how he was healing her so quickly.  
"It is a technique of your grandmothers, it allows your natual healing ability to be more focused. Combined with my chakra enhancing it, you can heal from some pretty serious wounds." The fox explained.

"Are you ok?"  
"No I'm not ok. I can't beat this guy?! I am the daughter of the seventh hokage! I am your jinchuriki and I still can't win!" She began ranting in her subconscious.  
"Enough! Stop whining! This is a real battle against an incredibly powerful ninja! You don't get to break down here do you understand me!" The fox roared at his young jinchuriki. She just stared back at him, ready to break down further.  
"I told you before! If you want to honour your father, don't give up!"

Sarada scrambled back until her back was against the wall.  
"You know I can feel your heart beat in this water. I can literally feel your fear, Sarada Uchiha. It's a shame that I can't see the final expression you make." He pointed the knife in her direction, glee in his voice and face. She took a couple shuriken out of her weapons pouch and threw them at him and watched as they went through his liquid body. He laughed at her as he dove forward with his knife and plunged it into her chest. As he heard her scream he took the knife out and plunged it back, this time into her throat. Through the water joined to his body he felt her limbs drop lifelessly into the water, he laughed again before removing his blind fold to look at his work.

As he took the blindfold off and let the light back into his eyes, the first thing he seen was Sarada suspended from the ceiling. His gaze was caught by hers, he watched as her eye changed into its mangekyou form before he found himself paralysed. She dropped to the ground, turning in the air as to land on her feet. She took her stance before thrusting her fist into his stomach and this time he did not liquefy. Blood poured from his mouth as he was flung by the force of her punch back to the wall.  
"Ah… but how…"  
"Shadow clone jutsu. A technique I learned from an old team mate of mine." She began to explain.  
"When I threw that shuriken earlier, I threw a second one. It hit the wall and I was watching you. I didn't know if you could sense me on the wall through these seals or if it was just because you couldn't sense me on the water. That shuriken was a test on that. After that, I was waiting for an opportunity to use the shadow clone jutsu without you knowing, you kicking me off of the ground was just what I needed." Hakkigetsu made his way onto his feet, holding himself against the wall.  
"Not that…. Why won't my body liquefy…" He said, struggling through the pain.  
"Oh, that would be my genjutsu. I might not have bothered with a visual illusion, but surely you have noticed how much warmer it is." Hakkigetsu then realised the heat, the scorching heat flowing all around him.  
"I noticed the water bottle you carry on your person, and you aren't the first member of the Hozuki clan I've met and that ninja too carried a bottle of water. You're technique to luqify yourself requires you to remain hydrated doesn't it?" Hakkigetsu glared up at her, angry that he figured out his technique.  
"Also, the blindfold gave away immediately that your technique is activated on instinct, right now your instinct is stopping you from liquefying because it knows how quickly you will dehydrate." Sarada jumped towards him grabbing him by the throat looking him in the eyes again.  
"So how do I get out of here?"

On the outside of the room, Jinsho stood with his hands against the door, pouring his insects into it.  
"Well?" Shikadai asked his comrade.  
"There is a very powerful seal on this wall, even my insects can't penetrate it." Suddenly, despite this the doors opened in front of them and Sarada walked out. The swarm of insects retracted from her and back into Jinsho.  
"Sarada, are you alright?" Inojin appeared from behind Jinsho concerned for his friend. Sarada smiled and turned her head back to the defeated man in the room behind her.  
"Do we know what happened to Himawari?"  
"None of the insects I've sent after her have returned and…."  
"And?" Jinsho turned and signally Sarada to follow him. They made their way into the main hall, many of the Kōyō ninja were over joyed to see their leader alive. Sarada was less joyful when she see the entrance to the compound. It had been covered by a layer of frost, she could hear the whistling wind outside as well.  
"A snow storm? This time of year? In this part of the world?"  
"It must be Seph."  
"Jinsho."  
"Yes Sarada?"  
"Bring me a Yoake ninja." She said, coldly.  
"Sarada are you…" Inojin asked, concerned.  
"Going to do whatever I can to save Himawari."

"Himawari… I have a plan." Kurama said to his jinchuriki as she dodged various attacks from all sides using her incredible speed.  
"What is it?" She thought to herself as she deflected an arrow with a chakra tail.  
"It's clear we can't clear this storm with one of my tails, but if we use all of them, with your rotation."  
"But Kurama, I've never been able to get the technique to work!" Himawari dodged the punch of an ice giant but the snow on the ground turned into ice as it flew off of the ground and cut into her.  
"You can do it Himawari, I know you can." The fox spurred her on as she made her way back onto her feet.


	18. Chapter 17

**A Naruto Sequel: The End Of The world**

 **** **Chapter 17**

Himawari looked at the four giants before her, and with her byakugan she was able to see the archer behind them. She formed her fox avatar and prepared for to end this battle. In her giant form she began by dashing forward. Seph fired four giant ice arrows towards the fox, who deflected the arrows with his tails. Kurama tackled one of the giants to the ground, and swiped the others down using his tails seemingly without looking. Seph smirked as he created another ice giant which kicked the fox's head before it was even fully formed. The other four giants brought themselves up, and the five prepared to overwhelm the fox and his jinchuriki.  
"Now Himawari!" The fox stood up and took a gentle fist stance, taking control of the fox Himawari began spinning where they stood.  
"Come on. Come on." Himawari tried to encourage herself as the rotation began to create a small winter tornado around them. The five giants crumbled apart under the rotational force engulfing them. Himawari smiled at her success but she soon tripped, falling to the ground. The wind rushed out in all directions but it was insufficient in stopping the storm. Seph laughed at her, drawing back his bow. Himawari cursed him, swiping at the latest arrows.

"Ice style, ice claw trap!" A massive claw of snow and ice formed on the ground gripping into the fox.  
'Himawari!' Kurama roared, she knew what he meant. She escaped the form yet again but…  
"You think I'm a fool Himawari Uzumaki! Water clone jutsu!" He made a hand sign and several water clones appeared on the ground below Himawari, each with their bows pointed at her. Stuck in mid-air, Himawari felt a small panic over take her as the arrows left the bow strings. She took her stance again in mid-air, hoping to deflect the arrows with rotation but she was too frightened. Instead of spinning she reached down, outstretching a chakra arm which imbedded its claws into the ground. Himawari used her chakra arm to pull herself down to the ground, avoiding the arrows. With her byakugan she saw as one of the clones made its own hand signs, Himawari rushed to the clone pressing her palm into its chest. The defeated clone turned to water, one of the other clones using its bow as a staff tried to strike Himawari but was taken down. A wicked grin grew on Seph's face, the first clone which had seemingly became water turned into a mirror made of ice. Kurama recognised the jutsu, trying to warn his new Jinchuriki but he was too late. Himawari screamed as an arrow flew straight through her side, spilling her blood onto the snow below.  
'Damn byakugan, she was able to prevent the arrow from hitting a vital spot.'  
"Quickly Himawari, you have to destroy the mirror!" Kurama roared, Himawari complied using a chakra arm with her gentle fist to destroy the ice mirror.  
"Good, I've been able to stop your bleeding but he's wearing us down. We need to end this. Now." Himawari didn't answer, she just growled at Seph. Kurama could sense her frustration, she was losing her composure, her concentration. She was trembling with rage, she wanted to end this so much she was ready to jump straight in without thinking.

"Himawari!" She ignored him, taking her stance, preparing to leap into the fray.  
 _"Back off, traitor."_ That voice. Her father. Himawari snapped back to her senses, she could still see what was going on around her. But at the same time, she was remembering something, a memory that wasn't really hers. In her subconscious Kurama was showing her a new memory.  
 _Naruto brought on of his hands above the other and began using it to rotate his chakra, forming it into a small ball in his hands. He brought it round to his side before thrusting it towards his opponent._ Himawari recognised the technique as the rasengan, but something was wrong, it was like the jutsu wasn't complete yet. _The older ninja dodged the attack smoothly, as if floating by Naruto. He brought his hand back, placing it on Naruto's leg damaging it internally. Naruto cursed his inability in using the technique efficiently. The older ninja began taunting Naruto, claiming he was all talk.  
"Admit when you are in over your head, sometimes it's better to run away. What's with that look? If I kill you now your dreams will never come true. Little kids think life is so easy, that's why they never give up." The older ninja kicked Naruto onto the ground and then continued kicking him until Naruto caught his foot.  
"That's enough.. I'm never gonna run away. That's my ninja way!" Naruto tossed Kabuto's foot away. Kabuto swiped Naruto away from him again, towards another present ninja. The other ninja watched Naruto make his way to his feet, claiming he was going to win some bet. He created a shadow clone and she begged him to leave, to give up and run. Kabuto ran towards Naruto with a knife in hand, Naruto didn't flinch. He caught the knife, by letting it stab him in the hand.  
"I…. Until I become Hokage I don't care what happens I am not gonna die! Try and dodge this." This time, his clone worked with him to create the rasengan, now perfected. Kabuto pulled at the knife, but he couldn't get free but was eventually flung free as the rasengan buried itself in his chest. _

'Amazing… Dad completed a jutsu like that… mid battle… and he was younger than I am… Kurama… do you really think?' The fox didn't answer, he let Himawari come to her own conclusion. Seph created another ice giant, hoping to force Himawari back into her fox state but all he did was give Himawari a new plan. Himawari smirked in a way resembling her father in the memory she just witnessed. She ran forward, dodging a punch from the ice giant but instead of continuing on her way she jumped onto the ice giants arm. She ran up the ice giants body, she saw as several ice spikes came from beneath its 'skin' but she was easily able to dodge them. She jumped from the shoulder onto the giants head before transforming into the nine tailed fox yet again using the giant as a spring board to jump higher into the air. The giant fox avatar took its stance among the clouds.  
"Now… eight trigrams… nine tails palm rotation!" A massive orange chakra orb span in the sky, the force from the spinning tails created enormous gusts of wind which began to push the clouds away in all directions. Even on the ground the snow was flung into the distance.  
"Ice style: Ice dome!" Seph used his chakra to create a dome of ice to protect himself from the massive winds. Due to the transparent nature of the ice he saw as the fox descended from the sky, right on top of him. With an open palm the fox crushed the ice dome but Seph had managed to escape the dome by creating a hole in it just in time. Himawari jumped out of the fox form towards Seph, panicked he created a sheet of ice beneath his feet and used it to jump out of her path. Himawari swiped her arm, pointing it at him. She created a new chakra arm and outstretched it with her gentle fist, striking one of his chakra points. He coughed out as he felt the use of his chakra fade away.

"You… You bitch…." He cursed, watching her make her way towards him.  
"Tell me… Seph Yuki… your necklace… what is it?" Himawari's nine tailed chakra form faded away, her stamina running out.  
"My necklace how did you…." He was about to ask how she seen it, but he forgot about her byakugan for a moment.  
"Oh right… I forgot. I don't know… it's just a necklace. Why?" Himawari, looked through his shirt like she had done to see his chakra points and she could still see it. The necklace he had around his neck, was a leadership key.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Hey…why are you asking about my necklace?" Himawari didn't answer, she was too exhausted, and she just knelt down on the ground.  
"Himawari!" Sarada, Inojin and Iona arrived on the scene. Iona went down to her friend and began restoring her strength.  
"Sarada… he has a leadership key…." Himawari explained to Sarada. She turned to Seph, her mangekyou sharingan active.  
"Show me." Seph was still confused and wounded but he complied. He took his necklace out from underneath his shirt and Sarada done the same. The keys were the same.

"What the hell… they are the same…" Sephs confusion grew. Sarada locked eyes with him, trapping him in an illusion. Seph found fire burining all around him, the ground scorched through his skin.  
"Shut up. After what you've pulled you don't get to ask questions!" Her left eye bleeding as her rage chocked her words. Seph began to flinch as the 'heat' burned all of his skin.  
"Now, tell me how you got that key and I'll turn down the heat."  
"Eh…It was on that day…"

 _Demons ran through the streets of the hidden mist village, there screams clouded by the human flesh filling their jaws. The once beautiful village was near gone, the buildings desamated by the collassal demons and the glowing blue canals that once covered the village had become painted with the population.  
"Push them into the water!" One mist ninja screamed his comrades, one of which used a wind style jutsu to knock dosens of the deamons into the canals. A third ninja, atop a building nearby jumped down whilst making his own hand signs. When this ninja reached the water it froze on contact, freezing the demons solid along with it. He pulled a bow from his back and fired ice arrows into all the demons he had frozen smashing them.  
"Nice work Soku!" _

" _Look out!" A different ninja shouted as a massive amount of flesh demons poured over a nearby building like a tidle wave.  
"So that's what death sounds like…"  
"It's over isn't it…."  
"Ice style: Archers hail storm!" Each demon was impaled by an ice arrow as they approached the group in question, being pinned to the ground or the building what ever happened to be closest.  
"Seph!" Soku shouted to his son, who was still firing arrows into the air as they multiplied in the air. Seph smirked at first, but shortly afterwards the demons started making their way past his wave of death. The team began to panic again.  
"Lava style: Lava monster jutsu!" The team looked behind them, and seen a large rushing lava over their heads and into the approaching demons.  
"Lady fifth!" _

" _I had that!"  
"Seph! This is not the time for your ridiculous need to prove your superiority." Soku snapped.  
"Soku, Yoba, whats the situation?" Mei asked, like Seph and unlike the others she was relitevly uninjured.  
"It's… bad…lady fifth…" Yoba answered. Mei looked at him in horror, awaiting his answer.  
"I think half of the village… has already been killed." The ground shook, a collasall. It ran towards them, killing dosens of ninja in its stride.  
"Seph!"  
"Right!" Father and son both returned their bows to their backs and began making handsigns. Both men placed their hands on the ground causing it to freeze far into the distance with the intention of tripping the demon. _

_Instead of falling for this, the demon lept into the air and was in a position to land ontop of the current party. Mei couldn't use her lava, it would land on them. Mei spotted another ninja, jump into the air. He took a massive sword from his back and something rolled out from behind it. He swung the sword into the demon, creating an explosion which pushed the demon out of its current decent path. He was one of the new ninja swordsmen, the new weilder of the blast sword.  
"You guys alright?"  
"Yeah, thank you." A roar rang into the air, despite the massive wound resulting from the blast sword the demon got up. Its wound not so much healing but it was more like its entire body was changing into a different body. Several of the ninja threw kunai at the demon and they simply bounced off, as its skin turned dark and metallic. The demon rolled over and reached out to try and bite into the ninja.  
"Lava monster jutsu!" Mei spat lava into the demons mouth and it fell back to the ground rolling in pain. _

" _Damn it, they just keep coming. We are fortunate still to have lady fifth with us Hey guys. AH!" One ninja turned to his comrades. Blood was leaking on the ground, they all turned to see why he screamed but none of them wanted to see why, as if they already knew. It was like they were slowly watching the hope drain away. The fifth mizukage had been killed. A long pale arm pierced through her body, it had came through the corpse of the mutating demon which had now began turning to dust. The other ninja present saw the thing on the other side, it was a flesh demon. It had no eyes, only a childish grin, its skin completely pale but somewhat transparent allowing the flow of blood underneath to be seen. Somehow, it had lengthened its arm and had enough strength to pierce through two bodies. It snapped back its arm, pulling it from the Mizukage's body and returning it to normal length. Some of the ninja ran, others just...gave up._

" _Monster!" Soku shouted, pulling his bow and firing several arrows into it. The arrows didn't pierce, the body just stretched back. The demon thrusted its torso forward, returning the arrows from whence they came. They ripped through Soku with more force than he fired them with.  
"Father!" Seph rushed to his fathers dying body. The blast sword ninja rushed forward to the demon, slashing it and seemingly killing it by blowing its 'face' clean from its head.  
"Father! Father!" Seph shook his father's body. Nothing.  
"Ahhhh!" The ninja with the blast sword screamed. Seph looked up, and watched as the last comrade he had in the area dropped to his knees, dying. That's when he seen it, the eye of the demon. Beneath the pale skin on its head, were two eyes. The blast had revealed one of them, with the wound slowly closing through some kind of regeneration. The eye was filled with an inhuman level of bloodlust, everyone it had ever killed seemed to look at Seph through the immense bloodlust in its eye. _

_All of the bravado he held fading from his body and a fearful void filling the space. The more frightened he became the angrier he became.  
"No…NO!" Seph screamed.  
"Seph…." Mei moaned, clearly in great pain.  
"Lady fifth, you're alive!"  
"Take… this…." She handed it to him, they key.  
"Protect…our people…" Her final words, as the life faded from her eyes.  
"I….I hate this world…." The demon moved slowly towards him.  
"He…made me promise I wouldn't use this jutsu…because it was forbidden. When I…I could have saved him. From now on… I don't care what means I have to use… I will get ever more power. And protect our people! I am Seph Yuki! And I am what comes after the Mizukage! I am…. Your killer! Yuki clan secret technique, Storm Summoning; White nightmare!"_

"So… that's how the hidden mist fell, I am sorry for your loss. Seph Yuki."  
"So…what now? Sarada Uchiha." He still couldn't move, but he was still in a genjutsu.  
"Sarada, we should take his leadership key! If what Mirai said about them is true then…"  
"No." Sarada said, without any thought at all. Instead, her eyes began to spin. Seph looked around him in horror, he saw E-day again. Not in his memory this time, but Sarada's. He looked all around as the world went to hell. But then he heard a noise. Something tearing through the air. And then he saw as the village was reducded to nothing. Instantly he found himself atop the nine tails fox, and looking at a massive army of demons which before long were wiped out by the same thing.

"What the hell was that…." He said as the genjutsu finally released its grip on him. But he was till frozen solid. Sarada's left eye was twitching horribly.  
"That. Was my right eyes ability." Himawari turned to Sarada in horror, what was she doing?  
"With that, and Himawari's byagkugan. Do I need to tell you how easily I can destroy the Yoake?"  
"Sarada!" Himawari got up and grabbed one of Sarada's arms. Sarada pulled away.  
"Listen, you keep that key safe. And one day, we are going to re-discuss this partnership. And we will have it. Do you understand?" Seph frustratingly nodded at her.


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

A young child, no older than two years old cried out in hunger. The child's older brother tried to relax him with little success.  
"Hey, is everything ok?" Iona appeared, placing her hand on the child's head taking his temperature.  
"Yeah, I think he is just hungry. Have Himawari and the others arrived back with more rations yet?"  
"And what about a new base? We've been on the run for weeks now?" A second civiallin approached Iona, to her awkwardness.  
"Look guys, I know about as much as you do. The next time I meet with Sarada I'll be sure to try and get some answers for you. As for Himawari she should be back in a few hours."

"Miss Sarada, you asked for us?" A pair of young ninja entered Sarada's tent, where she and Jinsho stood over a series of maps drawn by Inojin.  
"Yes, I understand the two of you are gifted in water style?"  
"Um, as much as we could be I guess. I am mostly self-taught, I think she had training from her… family and we practice with each other regulary."  
"The facts are, the odds of the scouting team returning with enough food for the entire group is…unlikely. We are spread incredibly thin as it is." Jinsho explained to the young ninja.  
"We would like you to make a small expedition to this lake here and using your water style I'd like you to bring as many fish back here as you can." Sarada ordered, pointing to a lake on the map.  
"Wait, this map shows the lake what, four hours journey from here?! And you want us to go without Himawari?! Or Tokuma?! How we will we know if any demons come at us?!" One of the ninja spoke up, frightening the other.

"Yes but we found someone else to accompany you." Sarada answered as another ninja entered the tent.  
"This is Tarui, one of the hidden cloud ninja we found with Chocho. He wields a unique sensor jutsu that works off of movement, if any demons comes at you he will be able to sense it. Furthermore, Kabuto will be accompanying you using his sealing skills to seal all the food and water you can." Jinsho finished explaining.  
"Any other questions?" Sarada asked, met by firm looks from all three ninja.  
"Good, Kabuto is currently with Shikidai at the training tents but Jinsho sent an insect clone to brief him. If you could meet him there and depart immediately. Thank you." Sarada ordered as the ninja took there leave.

"So, what are your names?"  
"I'm Yaku, and this is Mito."  
"What age are you guys?"  
"14." Yaku answered.  
"Is she ok? She hasn't said anything this whole time." Tarui seemed somewhat annoyed by Mito's silence.  
"Yeah sorry, Mito doesn't talk much. She….It's complicated."  
"Yeah…isn't everything these days."  
He said, somewhat disheartened. Mito continued walking behind the two in silence with her arms wrapped around her waist.

 _A younger Mito was hiding amongst the ruins of her home, in a small village in the land of fire. Her parents at either side of her. Across the room she could see her younger brother, Hashi, bleeding into the floor. She held her hand over her mouth holding in all the emotions, all the fear. Between her and her brother she could see something walking past them, something metal. She lay there too afraid to even shiver. Every hiss from the demons, every step was like a new wound being cut into her. After hours of simply waiting there, there was a silence a long silence. A very long silence._

" _Mom, dad I think we can…" Mito was interrupted by a demon ripping the rubble they were hiding below off of them, screaming right at them. The metal beast swung for Mito with its claws but her father intervened.  
"Water style: Water whip!" He swung the liquid weapon round, not damaging the demon but it was enough to knock it back saving his daughter. Without his notice many more demons appeared, rushing the ninja and pouncing on him. Once he was on the ground the demons began sinking their teeth into his various limbs and ripping them off one by one.  
"Mito run!" Her mother rushed out, pulling her daughter up and turning her away from the battle. She turned around and made a handsign, summoning a thick mist around her, providing a thick cover for her daughter to escape._

 _Mito ran for as long as she could, eventually coming to a slow limp, until she had no strength left. She eventually collapsed as a group of flesh demons approached her exhausted body. Barely conscious and silent, she watched as the demon prepared to consume her. Just as the demon's drool fell onto her skin she saw a figure appear before her, her exhausted brain couldn't make out the face but she could tell her savior was female and had incredible strength._

"So is everyone here?" Kabuto asked, snapping Mito back into the present.  
"Looks like, are we ready to go?" Tarui turned to the two younger ninja, who nodded at him.  
"Alright let's go." The team made their way into a nearby forest, towards the lake they intended to. Kabuto took the lead, having two massive scrolls tied to his back for sealing supplies. Mito and Yaku followed slightly behind him with Tauri at the rear.  
"So Tarui, this sensor technique of yours, how does it work?" Kabuto asked.  
"I am the grandson of the hidden clouds famed Magent style Toroi. I inherited this kekki genkai from him, unfortunately I have yet to develop it for any combat techniques but my sensing is a magnet style sensor technique, my body releases a large magnetic field and I can feel things that pass through it. When Jinsho said my technique works off of movement it would be more accurate to say it worked off of relative movement, when stationary I can only sense moving objects, when I'm moving I can sense anything as long as it isn't moving in the same direction at the same speed I am."  
"Wait, so if something is following us, but maintaining a constant distance from us it's invisble to you?"  
"If it can mimick my trajectory perfectly, then yes."  
"Great… you better make some awkward movements then Tarui…" Yaku sighed.

"You sense anything just now?"  
"Nothing out of the ordinary, I think we have a clear path to the lake."


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

In the hours that followed this new makeshift team arrived by lakeside and begun their mission. Using a water style jutsu, Yaku was lifting several portions of water above his head most carrying fish. Then using the control technique of his eyes would send several blades into the fish, pushing them out of the water. Once gathering the fish together he would seal them before repeating the process. At the side, Tarui sat metidating to extend the radius of his sensing technique, while Mito sat alongside him either awaiting his signal or for Yaku to take a break.  
"You know guys, maybe, just maybe we will have more food here than the scouts will bring back. Who needs em right?" Yaku joked, while Kabuto laughed Tarui spotted that Mito possessed a small smirk.  
'Hmm, so the kid does actually react to things.'

"Tarui, can you sense anything?" Kabuto asked just after sealing the fifth lot of fish.  
"I sensed some demons a few moments ago but they passed this area by." He voiced. Mito continued to listen to the jokes and conversation of her comrades as she fell back into her memories.

 _"Has she said anything yet?" Mirai asked a younger Iona.  
"No, other than the fact she hasn't eaten she's physically healthy. Who knows what she seen out there, I could ask Inojin to have a look, the yamanka clan have a better understanding of mental health than I do?"  
"No, I think we should just give her some time. I don't think we should have someone else going around in her head." Mirai and Iona left, leaving Mito there crying in her blanket.  
"Hey, excuse me, are you ok?"Mito turned, spotting a young girl slightly older than her with short purple hair and blue eyes. Mito didn't answer her.  
"I just wanted to drop by and give you something to eat. My brother mentioned we found someone and I wanted to come help but em… my name is Himawari. Just give me a call if you need anything." Himawari got up to leave as she heard the younger girl mummur something weakly.  
"Mito…Mito Natsuki." She mummured again, slightly louder. Himawari turned looking for her older friends but couldn't see anyone around. _

" _Hey, Mito… em… do you think you could tell me what happened?" She sat down next to Mito, massasging the younger girls arm. Mito, looked at Himawari's actions. Himawari pulled her arms away nervously.  
"Sorry, I'd just seen people do that to others before and I thought I'd try it.  
"I…I spoke up…and they heard…and then…." She began crying, turning into Himawari's shoulder and burying herself into it. Himawari embraced the young girl, not knowing her brother had been watching the entire ordeal.  
"Told you Himawari would get her to open up, Sara." Boruto said, deactivating his byakugan and turning to his friend.  
"You know I believed you right? I didn't doubt you." She said, giving him a small punch.  
"It's weird, Himawari just has this way of getting through to people. I guess that's why Mirai calls her the autumn sunflower." _

"Right guys, I think that's us ready to go." Kabuto said, rolling up the last scroll.  
"You got lucky Mito, you never even had to anything!" Mito smirked as she stood up but suddenly she was pushed back by an explosion of water. A large demon came out of the lake roaring at the ninja.  
"Damnit! Tarui I thought you said you couldn't sense anything!" Kabuto shouted, pulling two demon wind shuriken from a separate scroll.  
"I couldn't! My sensing technique doesn't work underwater! But we've never encountered a water demon before!" He pulled two kunai himself, taking a fighting stance. The demon bent over towards Kabuto, who threw his shuriken towards the water demon. The demon bit down on the metal weapons, smashing them. Kabuto jumped out of the way but was knocked down by a tentical which had seemingly grown from the demons side. Tarui threw his two kunai into the demons throat, but the outer skin was too thick for any serious damage.  
"Yaku!" Tarui shouted.  
"Right! Water style: raiging waves!"  
"Lightning style: running current!" The two ninja combined their respective jutsu, causing a lightning filled water attack, electrocuting the larger demon. However due its large size the demon shook off the shock, swiping the two ninja with its ever increasing tentecles. The demon used two of the tentecles to remove the knives from its neck and threw the two of them at a still incapacitated Kabuto.

"Water style: rising water wave wall." Mito said, calmly from across the shore. Creating a wave that rushed from the lake side into the demons body with enough force to cause it to fall over. The same wave deflected the knives flung at Kabuto. Mito made several more handsigns.  
"Water style: water kracken." Several liquid tentecles rose from the lakeside, wrapping round the demon restricting its movements completely.  
"Tarui." Tarui got back up, and reattivated his jutsu again electructing the demon, but this time it didn't stop. The demon stayed restained as the current continued to pass through it, the life squiring out of it. _  
_  
_"So her name is, Mito Natsuki. She was born in the hidden leaf village but her family decided to move out years ago for a quieter life." Himawari explained.  
"Mito… I know that name?" Mirai questioned.  
"Mito Uzumaki, the first hokage's wife. I asked why I knew that name, she said was named after her. Small world eh?"  
"So what else did you find out?"  
"Well, her parents are dead. She said her family were both ninja, one leaf and one mist. And they trained her in their jutsu. She says her parents were proud of her water style skills."  
"She can use water style?! At that age!" Mirai gasped, but Boruto was the one who turned to her in shock.  
"She might be…"_

"She's a genius." Kabuto finshed, watching her manipulate the water as the demon died.  
"Well… thanks Mito. You saved my life but, you made me seem pretty useless there."  
"Shut up Yaku, its time to go home." Tarui mentioned pulling him along.

"Hey guys, how did you get on?" Sarada asked, as Metal Lee took the scrolls off of Kabuto.  
"I think we got enough for a couple of days actually. Assuming no one minds eating fish for a few days." Kabuto answered.  
"Any trouble?"  
"Nothing we couldn't handle!" Yaku said, confindetly. Much to the annoyance of Kabuto and Tarui, although Mito seemed to be somewhat amused by her friends lie.  
"Sarada, Himawari and the others have been spotted on their way back." Jinsho entered the tent, leaving as he finshed.


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"Himawari!" Shuhei screamed, demons closing in on him. Seemingly out of nowhere Himawari appeared and dispatched of the demons before rushing off again. Inojin swooped down from the sky and picked up his young friend. Behind them, demons, lots of demons. Whilst her comrades fled Himawari followed them on the ground while attempting to keep the demons from persuing them. She dived into their midst and used her rotation technique to push most of the demons to the ground. In a very fluid motion she danced around the area, using her gentle fist to kill all the incapacitated demons.  
"Inojin! I can see the Kōyō!" Tokuma shouted.  
"Damnit, I didn't think we were this close. There's still so many demons following us."  
Himawari changed into her tailed beast mode and quickly disposed of the demons still following them. Or she thought she did, more demons came from below the ground, and not just where she was.

At the Kōyō demons began leaking up from the surface, much to everyone's horror. Near the children a pack of demons began crawling towards them, Shikadai lept between them.  
"Shadow stitching jutsu!" The demons, flesh demons were easily taken down by this jutsu.  
"Everyone, get to the rear defence, remember your training!" He commanded his students. Elsewhere, many more demons chased a single young girl who tripped as they leapt at her. The demons pounced, ready to consume. Sarada intervened, surrounding herself and the young girl with her susano rib cage.  
"Hey, stay down ok?" The girl nodded, hugging into Sarada tightly. As the demons continually struck into the chakra defending them Sarada made several hand signs.  
"Fire style: Burning ash!" Sarada breathed the ash out before flicking her tongue and setting it ablaze. The flesh demons burned alive whilst they stayed safe within the susano. Iona sat, using her medical ninjutsu to heal an injured young ninja, as Kabuto defended them. He used a mixture of taijutsu along with two custom shuriken which he manipulated with his eyes, his fighting style resembled a well-choreographed performance.

Once the fighting ceased eventually ceased, Jinsho sent out his insects to assess the damage to the Kōyō. Surprisingly no causalities resulted from this most recent attack although there were many injured, giving Iona plenty of time to continue practicing her medical techniques.  
"Himawari." Jinsho entered the small tent where she was resting.  
"Hey Jinsho, I'm sorry. We didn't find anything." Jinsho didn't make any noticeable expression but he was disheartened by this.

"Hey Himawari, how you doing?" Shota said, casually walking despite his obviously broken arm.  
"Shota?! What happened to you!?"  
"Downsides of not being a jinchuriki I guess? Hehe"  
"That isn't funny Shota." She pouted. He laughed. She got up and grabbed her bag, ready to leave.  
"Hey I was kidding!"  
"I know, I need to get back out there. Find us a new base." She left the tent.

"Hey! Himawari!" He chased her out, reaching for her wrist and missing.  
"How long did you rest for? An hour?"  
"Hour and a half." She made her way towards Inojin's tent.  
"Come on, you need more rest. Why don't we grab something to eat?"  
"Where?! Here in the middle of nowhere?! Where they can come at us from any direction?! We need somewhere secure Shota and I'm the only one with the byakugan now! It's my responsibility!" She snapped, walking into Inojin's tent.  
"Inojin, are you ready to go?"  
"Himawari… you just fought off a herd… are you sure?" Himawari glared at him, he didn't say anything he just got up and left with her.

Only 5 hours after leaving for their last scout the scouting patrol left on yet another scout. Shuhei was too exhausted to accompany them this time so he was replaced by a ninja named Kizo.  
"Inojin, I think I see something, ten miles out at ten o'clock." Himawari announced, the blonde ninja alerting their course accordingly. What Himawari had found was an old union embassy, set up just outside the village hidden in the grass. Or what use to be the village hidden in the grass.  
"Hey guys look at this!" Kizo shouted upon arrival, clearly excited.  
"What is it?" Tokuma questioned.  
"Are you serious? This is the new Kanabi Bridge!"  
"New Kanabi Bridge?"  
"Didn't you guys learn anything about history in the academy?! Look at this!" Kizo took them to the centre of the bridge where he shows his comrades a dedication.

 _This bridge is dedicated to the heroes whose efforts quelled the flames of the third great ninja war._

"This is the bridge they built in honour of lord sixth! As well as Obito Uchiha! Come on guys…"  
"Kizo look out!" Himawari pushed Kizo off of the bridge with a chakra arm, saving him from a demon bursting out from underneath the bridge.  
"Guys…. There's dozens of them under the bridge!" Himawari looked through the surface of the bridge, seen the demons crawling underneath them but her vision began to blurr. She lost her balance and her chakra began to shift uncontrollably until her chakra mode faded away completely dropping Kizo as she fell unconscious. Inojin leapt off of the bridge, sprouting his wings and flying down to grab Kizo. The demons let go of the bridge, leaping down after Kizo and Inojin.  
"Ninja art: Ink Phoenix exploding feather!" Inojin flapped his wings, throwing several ink paper bombs at the demons, killing most of them. The demon on the bridge lept at an unconscious Himawari before it was kicked away by Tokuma.  
"Ninja Art: Beast Mimickry!" Tokuma's teeth sharpened and his nails grew into claws. He jumped towards the demon, spinning.  
"Tunnelling fang!" He drilled through the demon, killing it.

"Inojin! We need to get out of here!" He picked up Himawari, shouting down to Inojin.  
"Hold on, Kizo." Inojin dropped him.  
"You said hold on!" Inojin took out his scroll and released 3 ink birds, landing on one himself while the other two flew to his comrades. The ninja began flying back to their group when they encountered a new problem.  
"Tokuma, do you smell that?"  
"It can't be..." The two turned around in horror, flying demons.  
"What the hell? Since when are there flying demons?!"  
"There has always been flying demons, this is only the second time we've seen them…." Tokuma said, clearly trying to maintain a calm exterior.  
"There's more this time… I don't think I can take them alone Tokuma.." Inojin explained.  
"Leave us, if you fly on your own you are faster than the ink birds."  
"Are you crazy?!"  
"Shut up! If you bring Sarada back with you she can burn all these things to hell!" After Inojin flew off, it wasn't long before he returned with Sarada, who using a massive fire style jutsu killed the flying demons. 

"Thanks Sarada, we would have been done for if it wasn't for you." Kizo thanked his leader.  
"No problem, Tokuma could you take Himawari to Iona? When you return I'd like the three of you to leave with Jinsho to have a second look at this embassy. Is that alright?"  
"Sure, I'll be back soon. Inojin, Kizo." Once the three ninja left, Sarada removed her glasses and began rubbing her eyes, she groaned in pain. She reached into her pocket and took out her bottle of pills signing as she ingested them.


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Himawari squirmed in her bed, having some kind of dream. One she seemed to be enjoying. Eventually she woke up and found Sarada and Iona in the tent with her. She was met with concerned looks from both women.  
"Hey Himawari, how are you feeling?" Iona reached down, taking her friends temperature.  
"Fine… how did I…?" She asked, clearly confused by the situation.  
"You collapsed, on a scouting mission that." Sarada said, with some judgement and annoyance. Himawari shot her with a glare, what was that tone for?  
"What about the others? Are they ok?"  
"They are fine, I sent them back to that embassy, Inojin said you didn't get a chance to properly evaluate it." Sarada answered, despite the fact Himawari addressed her question to Iona. Himawari tried not to glare at her, noticeably so.

"Iona, could you leave us?" Sarada asked, although it was more of an order. Iona gave a concerned yet awkward look between the two women but couldn't bring herself to object so she left.  
"Is something wrong Himawari?"  
"No." She got up out of bed, reaching for her jacket. Sarada moved towards her, motioning her to get back into bed. Himawari snapped her hand round, slapping Sarada's away.  
"Don't touch me." She hissed.  
"Excuse me?" Sarada said, angriliry.  
"Don't act all innocent, I was there remember. When you threatened Seph."  
"Himawari that was a bluff."  
"WAS IT?!" She screamed back.  
"YOU SHOWED HIM YOU'RE RIGHT EYE! GOD DAMN IT SARADA?!" She continued, getting closer to Sarada, screaming in her face.  
"Keep your voice down." She spoke, her anger increasing.  
"Or what? You going to use your right eye on me too?" Sarada grabbed Himawari and threw her down onto the bed, her mangekyou sharingan active she placed her in a genjutsu. Himawari could see chains, tying her down and somehow the genjustu was suppressing her nine tails chakra.

"That's enough, Himawari." Sarada began tried to calm herself down, holding her left eye.  
"You… you used the mangekyou on me?"  
"If I used anything less you'd have had Kurama break you out of it in a heartbeat." Himawari couldn't argue against that, it's true that with Kurama now inside her she was immune to most genjutsu, in fact she could break out of this given time. Sarada sat down next to Himawari.  
"Do you remember, after Kurama sealed himself in you I apologised to you about not being there for you enough when Boruto died?" Himawari wasn't listening at first, but Boruto's name snapped her attention to Sarada.  
"The reason was, I… I couldn't let myself grieve. I held all that pain in. I am still holding it in." Sarada began chocking.  
"Sarada…that's not…"  
"Not healthy? I know. But, I need to. It's the same with… my right eye. I can't allow myself to feel that pain anymore, not since Mirai died."  
"Why not?"  
"Because I need to. Have you noticed the difference between us and the majority of the other shinobi factions is?"  
"We have a tailed beast?" Himawari laughed, as if the answer was obvious.  
"No. Unity. Chocho mentioned it herself, at first the hidden cloud surviors will killing each other over supplies and they eventually separated into smaller groups. It's because they were overcome with fear, they feared for their lives because of this new world we live in. This new dark, painful world. I… don't allow myself to feel that. I take in all the darkness in this world, so that our people can feel safe, happy, together."  
'Sounds like an excuse to me' Himawari thought to herself.

"Himawari… You are wrong." A voice said inside her head.  
"Kurama?"  
"Listen, you may not recognise the side of Sarada you saw with Seph but…. What she is saying is the truth."  
"How do you know?"  
"It's how your father described being Hokage." Kurama answered.  
"A Hokage is the one who walks ahead, and bears all the pain so that his people don't have too. Sarada may not like hearing it, and may never admit it. But she has taken a role very similar to Hokage."  
"Sarada, I'm sorry."  
"You don't need to apologise. Ever." Sarada smiled, leaving as she undone the genjutsu.

As Sarada left, another figure walked in. Himawari got up to see, it was Shota. He smiled at her, not saying a word.  
"Oh go on, say it." He still didn't say anything. He started laughing at her which annoyed her greatly.  
"Ok, I told you so." He laughed more, she laughed a little with him.  
"Did you bring any food?" She moaned, but it was obvious from his expression that he hadn't. She pouted as her stomach growled.  
"Alright, before you kill me lets go get some, ok?"  
The pair left the makeshift medical tent, making their way to the supply wagon when suddenly, everyone began rushing to the edge of camp.  
"What's going on?"  
"It's Inojin and the others, they've come back." Shuhei said as he ran past them. Himawari was a little confused.  
"Does this happen every time we come back?" Himawari said, a little embarrassed.  
"Most of the time, yeah." Shota chuckeled.

"Somethings wrong." Himawari said, using her byakugan, spotting the scouts before they were in an accurate visual range.  
"What is it? Himawari."  
"There's only three of them…"

Running, running, running.  
"Move, out of the way." Running, running, running. For some reason he just couldn't shake this feeling. This feeling that something was wrong. He pushed people from side to side, running to the edge of camp. And suddenly the feeling he had washed away completely only for it to be replaced with a knowledge that something was wrong.  
"Kizo….Where's Kizo?!" He jumped forward to Sarada and the scouting party. His answers were met with nothing but an awkward science which only added to his confusion and anger. Minutes past, no one answered.  
"HEY WHERE THE HELL IS MY BROTHER?!" He lashed out at them, all of them.  
"Mosaru… Calm down just listen…" Tokmua came out of the group, reaching out to Mosaru. Mosaru took a step back, turning his back on them.  
"No…no..no no no."  
"Mosaru… I'm so sorry." Sarada placed a hand on him, which at first he didn't notice. His mind went blank, until.

"No, screw you!" He swiped Sarada's hand away and went straight for Jinsho. He pushed him back before pulling out a knife. Jinsho brought out his bugs, ready to defend himself.  
"This is all your fault, you arrogant son of a… why were you even out there! It should have been Himawari! Where the hell is she in anyway?!" He looked around, she was nowhere to be seen.  
"So what you think you and your stupid bugs can replace the byakugan?! Let's see if everyone here should be as scared of you as they are." He went forward with his knife but Sarada jumped in between them. She grabbed Mosaru by the wrist.  
"Mosaru! Stand down! This isn't Jinsho's fault." Mosaru pulled back, spitting on Sarada.  
"Actually, you know what? You're right! It's yours! If you didn't blow everything with the Yoake we wouldn't be in this mess!" He roared, reaching for her now when Inojin and Metal lee grabbed him from behind pulling him away from her.

"Mosaru, the Yoake double crossed us!" Inojin corrected.  
"Did they though?! We have her word to take for that! For all we know, they were retaliating because of something she did! Her, you, the bug freak, Shikadai. This damn inner circle that's been created!" Things became tenser, others began to whisper among themselves. This didn't go unnoticed, Sarada looked around at her people and could see the seeds of doubt growing.  
"Why are you even our leader anyway… after what you…."  
"Alright Mosaru that's enough! Calm down!" Inojin signalled to Metal to take him away from the scene.  
"Let go of me! Let go of me!" Mosaru was pulled away from the site as Himawari and Shota arrived.

His eyes locked onto hers, she could see the burning rage he wasn't just pointing at her but at the world. She had seen that look in her own eyes before. It reminded her of when Boruto died.  
"Sarada, what happened?" Himawari asked upon arrival.  
"Kizo, he died…we were attacked on the way back. We didn't see it coming." Tokuma answered, painfully.  
"Are you ok? Tokuma?" Sarada turned.  
"Yeah… just a few broken ribs."  
"Go see Iona."  
"I hate to ask but…I need to… the embassy?"  
"Yeah, its good."  
"I thought everyone would be a little happier with that news? Did we miss something?" Shota looked around, observing the mixed emotions of his colleagues.


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

"So, whats the plan Sarada?" Inojin asked, nervously. Jinsho had gathered the other advisors in the leaders tent following the skirmish outside.  
"We should wait until Himawari recovers, it would be too risky to move the entire group to the embassy without the byakugan."  
"Are you sure? Things are pretty tense out there, and that was before we lost Kizo, Mosaru had people talking." Shikadai responded. Sarada turned around, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. Jinsho turned to his colleagues.  
"Could you guys excuse us?" He asked, to which Inojin and Shikadai complied.  
"How has the division of food that Kabuto brought helped?"  
"People are eating, but they are still scared. It's been a while since we've been without a home for this long."  
"Yeah, I know. Ok, I'm going to see Himawari. See how she is feeling, the sooner we get out of here the better."

Himawari was in a small clearing, about a twenty minutes' walk from the settlement, training despite the orders of her doctor. In the area she was continuing to practice her taijutsu in her base form. Once finishing a sequence of moves she finished by using the rotation technique, demonstrating an ability to use it at will now.  
"It seems you have mastered that technique Himawari. If you are going to continue training, then you may as well learn something new." Kurama moaned.  
"You have something in mind, Kurama?"

A roar so loud that it physically shook the ground flew into Himawari's ears. She found herself on what looked like a battlefield, one of similar calibre to the ones she had fought on in the past two years. Around her was an army, of shinobi from different villages, all five of the great nations.  
"This is… the fourth great war." She contemplated, behind her she seen her father, he seemed to be the same age as her in this memory.  
"What… does this mean?!" Naruto asked, shocked and confused.  
"That you're the key of the strategy." A leaf ninja jumped down next to him, a leaf ninja with the byakugan.  
"Not that! I mean, what happened to Shikaku and Inoichi?!" Before the other ninja could answer, a large hand rushed towards them, throwing several ninja through the air and killing many more. A second ninja, who shared a resemblance to the first jumped down.  
"Neji! Spin right!" Both Neji and this ninja used their rotation technique to deflect the massive hand out of their path.

"Don't space out Naruto! We're in a battle and we're fighting! Some people will die!"  
"Grandpa, and uncle Neji!" Himawari was somewhat excited to see these members of her family fighting alongside one another. It was then she turned to see what they were fighting against, and it was big. It had an unusal appearance, its eye was on the side of its head and the ear on the opposite side with the mouth on the middle. The most obvious feature was that it had ten tails.  
"So…that is the ten tails…"  
"For this strategy we need your power, Naruto. In order to make it successful…"  
"We need to protect you Naruto!"  
"Hinata!"  
"Mama!"  
"Hmm, you look a lot like her. Himawari."  
Suddenly the ten tails brought all of its tails above its head, with their palms open. Before long she saw as innumerable wooden spikes rained down from them. All around people were killed, impaled by these wooden weapons. Hiashi and neji defended Naruto using their rotation techniques. As they did so, Naruto mediated before red rings appeared around his eyes. Sage mode.  
"Thanks Neji! I was able to enter sage mode!" Naruto ran forward and threw a chakra shuriken into the rain, causing an explosion which prevented their fall in the local area. Two of Naruto's clones ran forward repeating this process. Naruto fell down, exhausted from using up his sage jutsu chakra. A wooden stake was making its way towards Naruto, which Hinata deflected simply by pushing her palm in its direction.  
"What was that?!"  
Behind them again, another tail swiped towards them. Hiashi stood between them, thrusting both palms forward producing enough force to deflect the tail.  
"Gentle fist: Air palm. And gentle fist: Air palm wall." Kurama told his young Jinchuriki.

Sarada walked into the clearing, she seen Himawari sitting on the ground meditating.  
"What the…"  
"She's training." Sarada turned to see Shota, lying on the ground sitting against a tree.  
"Shota. You are kidding me right?"  
"Himawari doesn't like resting. Kurama is showing her his memories. I think it's his way of getting her to sit down." He explained.  
"Yeah, that's no shock. It must be a family trait." Sarada sighed.  
"Miss Sarada, if you want I'll tell her you came to see her. When she wakes up."  
"I'd appreciate that, thank you Shota." Sarada said as she left.

As the hand was pushed back, one finger sent several wooden spears pinpoint aimed at Naruto. Due to their speed, Hinata was forced to stand between the two. Despite her intent to use herself as a human shield for Naruto, Neji was the one who acted as a human shield. Both Naruto and Hinata watched in horror as his blood rained down on them. A nearby earth ninja used a massive jutsu to trap the ten tails in a pair of massive rocks. Naruto screamed for the medical team, but Neji knew it was too late as he saw his cousin cry.  
"…Naruto…Lady Hinata is…willing to die…for you… that's why your life…is not only one… apparently my life, too… was…one of…yours." He said weakly in his friends arms as his life slowly faded away.  
"Why…Why here…!? You're Hyuuga's…Why are you willing… to throw away your life for me…!?"  
"Because… told me..that I'm a genius..." Neji spoke his last words as he died in Naruto's arms.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't let your friends die?! Say that again! Naruto!" An unknown ninja screamed from atop the ten tails. This man drew Naruto's attention to the army around him, many more had died not just Neji. He continued to taunt him, saying he was powerless to prevent the death around him. The words wrapped around Naruto's heart like anchors and began pulling his hopes down away from him. As he sunk deeper into despair, Hinata rose her hand, slapping him. Naruto suddenly snapped awake from his depression and looked at her in shock.  
"Do you understand what Neji was trying to tell you just now? That your life is not only one…Naruto. Your words and belief, that you won't let your friends die… they are not a lie! It's because of your words that Neji made it this far… It's not only you… Everyone kept those words and feelings in their hearts. And that is how everybody's lives are connected together. It is what makes us comrades. If you were to give up on those words and thoughts… then Neji's death will become pointless. And then Neji would be killed all over again because he wouldn't be your comrade anymore. So let's stand up Naruto, together. Always going ahead and never going back on your words, never giving up. That's my ninja way too." The ten tails wrapped its tails around itself, bracing for impact as it launched a large attack against the shinobi army. Another ninja, atop an ink bird flew towards the attack before turning into a large ox.  
"Uncle Bee!" Himawari recognised the man.

Killer Bee sent the attack back into the ten tails, causing a massive explosion within the ten tails itself. Naruto took Hinata's hand, standing up and pulling her up alongside him.  
"Hinata…thank you!" Naruto entered his tailed beast mode and passed some of the chakra into Hinata.  
"Let's go, Hinata!"  
"Yes!" Naruto made three shadow clones, passing his chakra to dozens of other ninja. The ten tails, moved one of its tails to attack Naruto to prevent the enhancement of the shinobi army. Hinata used her air palm again, this time a single air palm to delfect the tail.

"Wow… that was… hard to watch." Himawari looked over at the body of her uncle.  
"I'm sorry, I wanted to show you how strong the technique could be when amplified by my chakra."  
"Do you have any idea how to do it?"  
"No, but I believe you'll figure it out."


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Hey, you woke up? When?" Himawari approached Shota.  
"A little while ago, how was the reminiscing?"  
"Fine, it was em… I saw my uncle die."  
"Why did Kurama show you that?"  
"It's complicated." She sat down next to him, letting out a little sigh.  
"Sarada came by while you were training."  
"Yeah? I'll go see her after I sit down for a bit."  
"You, sit down? Wow."  
"Shut up." She pushed him over, seemingly with little effort.

"So em, do you two have a history? You and Sarada I mean." Shota asked as he pushed his way back onto the ground. Himawari made a sort of awkward gesture, unsure of how to answer.  
"Yeah, our families were pretty close. Why do you ask?"  
"Well, I mentioned to Sarada that you didn't like to sit still and she said it must be a family thing." Himawari laughed.  
"Yeah, she was my brother's best friend, he didn't like sitting still either. My family is sort of full of hard  
workers, kind of seen that in that memory actually. My parents were close with her's before we were born as well."  
"That's the first time you've mentioned your family to me."  
"Yeah well, it's not easy looking back. Thanks to Kurama it's getting a little easier though."  
"Yeah, your dad was his jinchuriki before you right?"  
"Yup, and his mother before him. Actually, his dad used Kurama's chakra as well, and my mother. Well everyone except my brother it seems haha."  
"You know, your dad actually saved me once?"  
"What? Really? When?"  
"A few years ago, when those guys attacked the chunin exams. My family was one of the ones that was still in the stadium when the fighting started. He guarded us with Kurama's chakra. Small world."

"HIMAWARI UZUMAKI!" A voice shouted from within the trees, Mosaru. He came out from the cover of the trees, enraged. He ran straight towards Himawari who took a stance, instead of blocking or attacking she danced over his attack. He turned back to attack her a second time but Shota jumped between them.  
"Where the hell were you huh?! Why was Jinsho the one out on that scout?! And not you?! Answer me girl!" He continued to shout, despite reaching over Shota.  
"I…I am…I'm sorry."  
"She collapsed on the previous scout, shes been exhausted. She hasn't properly rested since the Yoake. Jinsho took over to confirm if the base they found before she collapsed was viable for us."  
"You what? You collapsed?! You shouldn't have even been out in the first place then?! If you hadn't been so arrogant to think you could go on forever, then my brother would still be alive!"  
"That's enough Mosaru, leave. Now."  
"Or what? You going to kill me Shota?"  
"Hmm. You try and hurt her, and yeah. I will"  
"Hmm, we will finish this later" Mosaru left, as angrily as he arrived.  
"Are you ok? Himawari." Shota turned back to his friend who stepped back.  
"I need to go see Sarada."

Himawari made her way back to camp, a lot of people seemed to be happy that she was on her feet but she felt incredibly guilty. Because she didn't rest when she should have, someone died. She couldn't look anyone in the eye, she just kept walking past them like a ghost. This continued until someone reached out to her.  
"Hey Himawari, how you doin'?" Himawari was caught off guard, she jumped away. She let out a small scream before catching the younger boy's eyes, it was Yaku.  
"Yaku, it's been a while." She leaned forward, hugging her friend. She looked around, and for sure she found Mito next to him. Himawari leaned forward and hugged her as well.  
"You hear?" Himawari froze, was he about to tell her about Kizo? Does he not know why she wasn't there?  
"Mito and I went on our first mission yesterday!" He folded his arms, clearly very proud and not only did Himawari relax she felt her hopes actually rising.  
"Really? What was the mission? How did you guys do?" She was exictied for her friends.  
"Kabuto took us, and one of the hidden cloud survivors out hunting while you were on a scout. We did pretty well I think."  
"I was wondering where all the fish came from. What about Mito?" Mito didn't answer, but she started fidgeting with her fingers.  
"Mito was amazing, she saved our buts!"  
"Really?"  
"It was nothing." Mito mummered.  
"Sounds like you were a hero, Mito." Himawari ruffled her friends hair. Mito seen Himawari's smile and  
began to blush.  
"Thank you, Hima."

"Sarada, may I come in?" Himawari asked from outside the tent.  
"Yes, please." Sarada embraced her younger friend as she entered the tent.  
"It's good to see you back on your feet."  
"Are you pretending to not be mad I was training?" Himawari joked.  
"Is it that obvious?"  
"You use to do the same thing to Boruto." Himawari couldn't see it for the hug, but Sarada had a small blush on her face. She didn't want to let go for the same reason but eventually she felt forced too.  
"Look, Hima, I'm sorry to ask this. Idealy I'd like you to rest for a couple more days but…"  
"You need me to lead the people to the embassy we found when I collapsed?"  
"Yes, I'm sorry but everyone is scared and restless right now. We need somewhere secure."  
"It's ok, I understand. When do we leave?"  
"The morning."

"Excuse me, Mosaru?" A young voice said outside Mosaru's tent.  
"What, cant a guy morne in peace?!" Mosaru came out, knife in hand and pushed the boy down onto the ground.  
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry. It's just…. Sarada sent some of us around to tell everyone that we are leaving in the morning."  
"Whoop dee do" Mosaru turned back to go into his tent.  
"Wait….what you said about Sarada before, did you mean it?"  
"Of course I did, why?"  
"I think you could be right… could we talk…."  
"Who are you?"  
"…Shuhei…My name is Shuhei."


	26. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

The following day, Himawari had guided her people to the embassy in the village hidden in the grass with relatively little issue. Some demons had attempted to attack but in too small numbers to be of any threat to a group of this size.  
"This is a lot better than you told me, there is space for everyone here." Sarada turned to her colleagues, to which Inojin shrugged off. This wasn't the first time they had used an old embassy as a base, in the days before the invasion a shinobi would stay in embassies like these if they had nowhere else in that specific village to stay, although with how close some of the villages were back then it hardly seemed necessary. They were actually ideal, they possessed beds for sleeping, real offices for working and planning and often they had stocked weapons. Due to being on Boruto's team as a genin Sarada never had to stay in these establishments in the great nations, they always ended up staying with a friend of Naruto's. Serving on Boruto's team, Sarada got to see just how many people Naruto had connected with in his life. She had stayed with the eight tails jinchuriki, the leader of the hidden rain village and she had even stayed in the Kazekage mansion. On one mission, not even to a shinobi land, a small family let her team stay with them. All of this felt like a thousand years ago now but she could still remember taste the fish delicacy that Inari made her in the back of her throat.

Sarada made her way into her new office space, she laid out the maps they had of the region.  
"So, what is our next move Sarada?" Jinsho entered behind her, although he seemed to be asking a question, more often than not with him he was really there to give his own thoughts on a matter.  
"The people are rattled, we need to offer them a sense of victory, and if possible we need to make this place more secure in order to prolong our stay here." Jinsho continued, not waiting for her to answer his original question.  
"You're right, Mosaru has people panicking as well. Ok let's…." She stopped, she reached out to the map but noticed the trembling on her hand. She was suddenly unable to truly focus on anything, even Jinsho who was only a few feet away from her.  
"Sarada?" At first she didn't seem to respond to him, she just looked in his general direction after a moment.  
"Take some earth style users, I trust you to choose the right people for the job, have them build walls and trenches at key strategic points around the base. Shikadai will probably already be assessing them as we speak. The insect user stared at her for a moment, his version of showing concern, before leaving. Sarada quickly reached into her bag pulling her medicine out before it tumbled out of her hands. She fell down alongside them, taking the pills into her mouth. She waited a few minutes as the trembling stopped and everything came back into focus.

"So, another successful relocation done by the great Himawari Uzumaki!" Shota teased, acting like some sort of showman.  
"Hehe, please don't do that…."  
"It's true Himawari, without you we wouldn't be here. Without you or Sarada." Yaku was tailing along behind them, as was Mito who was as silent as always but it seemed to be a happy silence.  
"Without Sarada Uchiha? I actually think we would be better off." The group of young ninja turned to see Mosaru with several others at his side.  
"Mosaru… what are you doing?"  
"What am I doing? I am putting an end to this farce we have been living with for the last three years." Himawari looked at him closely, she could still see the grieving brother but it was as if he was wearing this new rebellious determination over his grief.  
"Farce? What farce? What are you…." Himawari found the answer to her impending question coming from behind Mosaru.  
"Oh no…"

"Sarada Uchiha!" Sarada heard the shouting from her office, as she walked out and down the hall she could see the people gathering. They had gathered around the spot where Mosaru approached Himawari. It wasn't long before she seen what was going on. Shuhei was with Mosaru.  
"There she is everyone! Our savior! Our leader!"  
"Mosaru, what is this about?" She asked, worryingly.  
"Knocking you off of your pedestal before you get us all killed, like my brother." Sarada looked at his sides, something had changed in the people following him they seemed terrified. She turned her attention to Shuhei, who seemed more scared than all of them, he seemed to cower behind Mosaru.  
"How long are you going to stare at the kid Sarada? You know what this is about."  
"Would you mind letting us in on that Mosaru? Some of us have family to care for." A young woman, Haru's sister asked.  
"Hmm, it's lucky you have any family left since we having been following her for so long."  
"Mosaru, you're brother's death wasn't Sarada's fault." Chocho entered the debate.  
"Wasn't it? If she was a true leader, she would have forced Himawari to rest more instead of letting her lead a scout exhausted instead of giving her special treatment from the rest of us."  
"Special treatment?" Chocho seemed confused, she looked at Himawari who seemed equally confused but for some reason she couldn't make eye contact with Sarada, as if Sarada was denying her it.  
"What are you talking about? Sarada doesn't treat me any different from the rest of you, she always looks out for the group first off." Himawari protested.  
"Grow up Himawari, if she hadn't been sleeping with your brother then you would truly be in the same boat as the rest of us."

Himawari span around to look at Sarada and as their eyes met she felt a massive awkward weight fall between them. It was if, in that moment, an endless sea had emerged between the two young women. She could see from the guilt ridden sweat on Sarada's face that it was true.  
"Wait… you didn't know?" Mosaru laughed in disbelief.  
"You didn't know that the woman whose orders you've been following, the woman whose secrets you've been keeping and whose lies you've been telling was sleeping with your brother?" Himawari looked at Sarada to say something, but she didn't or maybe she couldn't.  
"Wow, that's great. It must sting to know that the woman who ordered you're brother to die was sleeping with him." He continued to mock but before it could continue he found himself flung back against the wall. Sarada held him by his throat over her head. As Mosaru gasped for his breath he looked down at Sarada and he seen the altered pattern of her eyes.  
"Say. That. Again." She spoke, slowly with a voice flooded with killing intent. Members of the Kōyō backed away from the scene somewhat, seemingly frightened by Sarada.  
"I dare you. Say. That. Again." She tightened her grip on his throat before meeting his eyes properly and pulling him inside of an illusion. Mosaru found himself surrounded by a dark cold and wet wind, while he could feel his insides burning up as if his blood had been boiled. Mosaru began to squirm against the wall, sweat pouring from every inch of skin as his eyes began to quake.  
"Go on. Let it out, open your mouth and let it out." Sarada quietly and someone still fiercely demanded of the male ninja.

Himawari looked at her older friend and barely recognised the girl she knew from the hidden leaf village. Instead all she saw was the same hate filled survivor of this nightmare she witnessed after her battle against Seph. It was shortly afterwards she heard some other members of the Kōyō whispering in fear of her friend.  
"Is that really Sarada…" Those were the words that stood out the most.  
"Sarada, calm down. Mosaru doesn't mean what he is saying. He is just upset." Inojin slowly approached Sarada, who didn't seem to hear him.  
"…Yes…I do… you stupid bi…" Sarada pulled her fist back aiming it straight at his gut. She prepared to plough her fist straight into him but as it began to move she collapsed over in pain. She felt her stomach pulsing inwards in pain and she could feel the same pain rising up through her chest. She began to cough, Sarada quickly let go of Mosaru dropping him to the ground and unintentionally dispelling her own genjutsu. Bringing her hands to her face a current of flowing blood crashed into them and continued to flow between her fingers.  
"Sarada!" Himawari, Inojin and several others shouted rushing to her. Mosaru took advantage of the moment and went at her with a knife. Himawari saw his intent and using Kurama's chakra sped up to intervene.  
"Inojin, Iona. Take Sarada to the medical office!" Jinsho commanded, as he and Tokuma drew their own blades as Mosaru's followers gathered up around him.

Those who had not taken a side looked between the two groups of ninja in confusion and fear, until one of them spoke up.  
"Mosaru… what did you mean before? About Himawari keeping Sarada's secrets…" Mosaru turned to the young female who addressed him. He was still in pain from the genjutsu but he found the words he needed.  
"Oh, that. It turns out, this apocalypse isn't that Sarada had us believeing it was. It wasn't some random demon race invading our reality. There is an intelligence behind them, something Sarada and her damn inner circle have been calling the humanoids. And they are what killed the five kage."


	27. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Inojin carried Sarada in his arms into the medical office as she continued to bleed and sweat. He placed her on a bed and ran back to the back of the room as Iona ran forward to check on her.  
"What happened to her?" A panicked Inojin asked from behind the young medical ninja.  
"I don't know yet…I…I'll need to inspect her blood and Himawari could look at her organs I guess. But this isn't a wound…I think it's some kind of illness." She said as she took Sarada's pulse, examined her eyes and too her temperature.  
"She's burning up. Inojin get me some cold water!"

"Humanoids… what do you mean?" One of the by standing ninja asked, in great confusion as his colleagues looked at each other for answers they didn't have. Jinsho looked at Himawari and Shikadai, none of them knew what to do.  
"Yes, it turns out there is an intelligence behind this hell hole we live in! Not only that, but that base we were going to live in? The one the Yoake attacked us in, the humanoids were there!" Mosaru explained. The whispering in the crowd became louder, growing into panicked conversation. After the initial panic they all looked to Himawari, Jinsho and Shikadai for answers but they were met with silence.  
"Maybe we should wait until Sarada recovers… hear her side of the story?" One ninja suggested, but his colleuge on his left pushed him away.  
"Are you kidding me? Sarada is the one who keapt these secrets from us!" A lot of ninja nodded in agreement, backing away from those who didn't.  
"Yes, but surely she had her reasons, right?" The initial ninja questioned.  
"Are you an idiot?!"  
"What? Want to say that again?" The two men began scrapping, as did several others across the room. Mosaru and his followers began walking towards Himawari and the others with their weapons ready.

Himawari, in her range turned her chakra mode into her tailed beast form. The massive burst of Chakra silenced the quelling crowd, and stopped the advance of her eniemeies.  
"Enough! We wait … We wait for Sarada to wake up. And then we will end this!" She said, nervously. She looked to her own friends as they took their leave to check on Sarada with Shota following after them.  
"Himawari, Himawari! Wait up." Himawari eventually turned around to look at him, but she didn't seem to be in the mood.  
"Himawari, did you know? About… the humanoids?" Himawari didn't answer, she drew a layer of guilt over her face.  
"You did… how could you keep that a secret? If its true…they killed my family…all our families…" Himwari didn't answer, she turned to walk away but Jinsho cut in front of her.  
"Shota, listen… I know you are confused and angry right now. But we kept this a secret because we didn't want to panic anyone. It was originally Mirai's idea to keep this quiet, not Sarada's. And we need your help, I need you to guard the entrance to the medical office." Shota scoffed at first, but he could see the pain in Himawari's eyes so he nodded at him. Eventually, they arrived at the office.

"Iona, what's wrong with her?" Tokuma asked first, not wasting anytime. Iona looked up her friends with no answer.  
"You don't know?" Himawari said, disheartened.  
"It is some kind of illness, I don't know what brought it on."  
"I do." Jinsho answered, leaving suddenly. After several minutes he returned, with a pill bottle in his hand. It was white with no markings or writing of any kind.  
"What's this?" Iona asked, taking the bottle off of him and inspecting the pills inside.  
"I have absolutely no idea, Sarada has been taking those pills for a while, possibly ever since she took over from Mirai."  
"And you never told anyone?" Inojin growled.  
"I don't think this is the time to lecture anyone about secret keeping, Inojin." Inojin calmed down for a moment, turning to face Himawari.  
"Hima, I'm sorry."  
"You knew?" Himawari asked, looking at everyone else in the room, everyone except Jinsho and Tokuma nodded.  
"I knew, Sarada didn't tell me but I knew. But that isn't what I meant, Inojin." Jinsho seemed to be a little annoyed by this change in subject.  
"Shuhei told Mosaru about the humanoids, and he just told everyone." Jinsho explained to Inojin.  
"Humanoids?" Iona asked, feeling out of the loop.  
"I'll bring you up to speed when this is over Iona, we have other problems right now." Jinsho said, with more emotion than anyone here had seen him display. He ran his hands through his hair.  
"Ok, em… so first things first, we never got a chance to do the food scout once we arrived here. If we can get people something to eat, it might stop them from panicking. At least for a while, Tokuma, Inojin. Find Tarui and take anyone else who will come with you and get as much food as you can."  
"Why isn't Himawari coming? It would be a lot easier with her."  
"I know, but the truth is I need Kurama here. His power might be the only thing that could keep everyone in line, if it comes to that." Jinsho didn't seem to like what he was saying, just as much as everyone seemed to dislike hearing it.

He looked to his friends, nodding to them to leave which they did shortly afterwards.  
"Iona, we need Sarada to get well. Sooner rather than later." Jinsho said, sternly.  
"I appreciate the confidence in my abilities Jinsho, but I have no idea how to fix this. Without knowing what these pills were for I could actually make things worse."  
"I know what they were for." A new voice joined the conversation, Kabuto Uchiha.  
"I'm sorry, he said he knew what was wrong with her, so I let him in." Shota said from the other side of the still open door.  
"Its fine Shota, what are they then Kabuto? And how do you know? Did Sarada tell you?" Himwari asked quickly.  
"No, but given her eyes. And the fact she was coughing up blood, it wasn't hard to put together." He explained. Jinsho became curious.  
"Hey eyes?"  
"Yes, the mangkeyou sharingan. This is a symptom of her possessing those eyes."  
"I don't get it, Sarada hasn't used her right eye in nearly two years. And even when she did she was never this bad." Iona questioned.  
"True, Sarada's right eye is immensely powerful, enough so that it blinds her in that eye for several days. But from the moment the mangkeyou sharingan is awakened an Uchiha begins to progressively lose their vision. And the more they use any of the mangkeyou sharingan it speeds up the process. Have you noticed that Sarada has never tried to push her Susano beyond its ribcage state? And that she constantly tries to improve her already impressive fire style? That is Sarada trying to slow the process down. These drugs are also for that purpose."  
"So, you have this problem as well? You were also taking the drugs?"  
"No Iona, me and my, clone siblings all have a unique genetic composition. So this is a special case."  
"Ok, so if we somehow get this drug out of her system, it's going to leave her blind?"  
"I can't say for sure. It will leave her vision seriously impaired at the very least."  
"Kabuto, there has to be a way to fix her." Himawari pleaded.  
"There is…" Kabuto said, bringing his hand up to his stomach gripping it tightly.  
"Kabuto what's wrong?" Jinsho stood up.  
"Both Lord Sasuke, and Madara Uchiha… were able to restore their vision…by taking the eyes of their dead sibling thus gaining the eternal mangkeyou sharingan." Kabuto said, struggling to speak.

"Kabuto, Sarada doesn't have any siblings. Never mind a dead one."  
"Like I said…I am…. A special case." Kabuto fell to the floor, struggling to breathe now.  
"You… are going to give her my eyes. I know Sarada wouldn't approve, that's why I… eh…" Kabuto opened his jacket, and everyone could see the massive blood stains on the shirt underneath.  
"I… remember the first time I seen Sarada… it was when my father tried to kill her and her own father. I remember watching her destroy the ground under my siblings. It was amazing. I have always believed in Sarada… and giving my life for her… well…I can't imagine a better way to go." Kabuto fell to the ground, the blood beginning to pour out from him onto it.  
"KABUTO!"


	28. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Kabuto lay on the ground, dead. Having stabbed himself in order to convince his allies to take his eyes and give them to Sarada Uchiha and save her life. Iona, Jinsho and Himawari sat awkwardly in the room with the body as Sarada lay unconscious.  
"We can't really do this can we…"  
"We have too. Or he just killed himself for nothing." Jinsho answered before Himawari could finish answering the question. Iona sat down next to the body and rolled over the body, looking at the seemingly normal eyes in their sockets.  
"Iona, what do we have to do?" Jinsho asked.  
"Right em, well I can transplant Kabuto's eyes, but I don't have the skills to get the drug out of her system."  
"I can do that, Iona. If I insert my insects into her blood stream it won't be a much trouble." Jinsho said with a strange sort of confidence."  
"Himawari, if you could keep an eye on everyone, tell Shota to watch the door while we work. Shikadai, could you Iona, you prepare Kabuto's eyes. I will begin on removing the drug from her system."

Elsewhere, a now makeshift scouting team left the Kōyō in search of both food and supplies. As Jinsho suggested, Inojin and Tokuma had recruited Tarui to their little mission and Chocho joined alongside them.  
"So, Inojin, Tokuma. You guys knew about these humanoids?" Chocho awkwardly asked, she could feel the tension between in the group and decided to power her way through it.  
"Chocho…"  
"Yeah, we did." Tokuma interrupted, Inojin looked annoyed at first but he let it go.  
"I didn't see a point in lying any further Inojin. The secret is out." As much as Inojin hated it, Tokuma was right.  
"It was Mirai who decided to keep it a secret when Kurama told her Hanabi, Boruto and Himawari. The only people who were told were the scouting parties, which Sarada was part of at the time. Sarada told Shikadai when Mirai died."  
"Speaking as a relatively new member of the Kōyō, it won't be long until Mosaru uses what happened to Mirari to his advantage."  
"I can't believe it has come to this…." Tokuma sighed.

"Enough, this gossip and complaining isn't going to do anything for anyone." Inojin commanded. He signalled his ink birds to fly downwards towards an abandoned town.  
"Right, everyone split up. Gather what you can." With that, all members of the group departed alone in order to find supplies. Tokuma found himself in what seemed to be an old store. It was certainly abandoned, empty food and drink containers littered the floor. For someone with a sense of smell such as Tokuma's this place was completely repulsive but he could smell fresh milk in the air. He followed that scent and it took him into a messed up room filled with shreds of cardboard and paper. The further he got into the room the more he could smell, and he eventually figured out that the milk wasn't without an owner.

Tokuma opened a third door, finding the burst bottle of milk leaking into the ground and being drunk by a dog with another older dog lying down by his side, presumably his mother. Tokuma, as his heritage would suggest, adored dogs to the point where he was visibly over joyed at this sight. Tokuma approached the pair, leaning down to greet them when the young pup jumped from its drinking milk and snapped at Tokuma, trying to bite him.  
"Hey little guy, its ok I don't want to hurt you…." Tokuma's words trailed away as he got a closer look at the mother. She had a gash in her side, claw marks, most likely from a demon. It looked badly infected, it was unlikely she would make it. From looking around at the place, the drag marks on the ground and the numerous claw marks on the door it was clear that the younger dog had been bringing his mother food to try and regain her strength.

With the younger dog now growling at him in a defensive position he could see his teeth, realising he wasn't as young as he originally thought. Tokuma knew a lot about dogs, everyone in his family having their own personal ninja hound, even he had one, once upon a time. The mother was clearly a husky, although that didn't take an expert, the younger dog was a cross breed of a husky and at a guess Tokuma thought a Golden retriever.  
"Hey, my name is Tokuma." He reached his hand down to him again, this time facing it upwards letting the dog smell him. The dog seemed to relax after this but his mother soon groaned in pain, causing him to rush back to her side. He licked the side of her face, causing her tail to wag weakly but she just continued to groan, the younger dog seemed to panic, running to the other end of the room pulling over some meat that it had found. He tried to get his mother to eat it but she wouldn't, or couldn't Tokuma wasn't entirely sure. Watching the young pup desperately trying to help his mother reminded Tokuma of the last moments he shared with his own mother.

 _That day started like many before it in the hidden leaf village, quiet and peaceful. Although for many young people in the village, it was a very frightening day. It was the day that many of them would find out if they would become ninja, or not. One such person was Tokuma Inuzuka. He began that day like he did most, up at 6am, three hours before his academy class to take his best friend Tobimaru out in the forests of the land of fire. Tobimaru was given to him by his mother and father at a young age to be his life companion as per Inuzuka tradition and was named after the second Hokage. Afterwards, he arrived home to have his breakfast with his family before departing for the academy.  
"Good long Tokuma!" His mother shouted excitedly as he left that morning. _

_Hours passed, the exam passed, with Tokuma passing and becoming a genin. Being assigned to a genin team alongside Himawari Uzumaki and Jinsho Aburame. After meeting with and finishing his first training exercise with his Jonin sensei he made his way home._

 _And that's when it happened._

 _It came from a hole in the sky. It was some kind of elliptic vessel, as big as the village itself, just floating in the sky, everyone just stared at it for a moment, unsure of what it was. No one knew if it was an enemy, a friend, or even if it was sentient or alive. After a while, it started to spark with a kind of red electricity and pieces of it started to fall off. But they weren't just pieces of metal, they were alive. Metal monsters, metal skinned demons. Once people had realised the situation they were in the vessel burst, more metal skins raining down from the surface of it with countless more flesh demons coming from its core. It was hell falling from the sky, in what seemed like seconds the village was overrun by these demons. Tokuma ran home, terrified. A flesh demon dived for him mere inches from his house, Tokuma barely dodging the initial attack but the demon was able to grab his leg and pull him down to the ground. Tobimaru leapt in to save his friend, but a second demon appeared catching Tobimaru in his mouth. Time seemed to stop for an eternity in that moment, between him being caught. And the demon clamping down on him, killing him.  
"Tobimaru!" Tokuma could do nothing but watch as his best friend was taken from him. _

_Tokuma sobbed into the ground as the demon that held his ankle slowly crawled over his body, as if savouring the kill. Before the demon could kill him, a hidden leaf jonin saved him, knocking the demon away from him.  
"Kid! Get inside! Go!" The ninja shouted, although Tokuma could barely hear him from the sound of his own terrified heart rate he took the opportunity to run into his home. Tokuma assumed from the near perfect condition of his homes exterior that it would be relatively ok on the inside, the other ninja probably assumed the same. The floor of his home had been burrowed under, demons had scrambled into his home from the hole they made. The hounds his family cared for had been slaughtered, and most of his family had met the same fate. He found his mother partially buried under some debris, from the blood leaking from the rocks it was likely that her entire lower body had been crushed.  
"Mum! Mum no!" Tokuma ran to her side, trying to life the rock that had crushed her. She was barely conscious, holding on to the tiniest piece of strength.  
"Tokuma… run…"  
"No! No! I won't leave you!" He continued trying to lift the rock with no noticeable success. Somehow, his mother found the strength to reach onto Tokuma's shirt. Pulling him towards her.  
"Shut up. And go! Now!" She brought her free hand round, slapping how down to the ground. Tokuma looked up at his mother, as terrified as he was coming in. More demons came up from the floor, racing towards both of them.  
"Tokuma! GO!"_

The wall of the store burst down, three flesh demons ran into the room making their first target the two hounds. Tokuma jumped between them, having used his beast mimicry.  
"Not again… Tunnelling fang!" Tokuma jumped forward, spinning. He dug into the first demon in the centre while using his rotation to kick the other two away from him. Having killed one of them, he snapped back around to deal with the other two. Feeling threatened by this, one of the two demons turned back to the hounds but to its shock it was met by the younger dog who had ran up from behind. In a single move the dog bit into the demons throat and ripped it out. Tokuma smirked, for an Inuzuka to be fighting alongside a hound, it was an honour. Having heard the noise, Inojin and Chocho arrived. The demon, through its survival instinct fled the area.

"This isn't a bad find, Tokuma." Inojin looked around, examining not only the supplies in the store but the supplies the young hound had gathered.  
"Chocho, get Tarui. I'll start sealing the supplies into transport scrolls."  
The dog walked slowly back to his mother, who he could see was no longer moving. He pushed his head against hers, hoping to wake her to no avail. He began whining, crying, curling up next to her. Tokuma approached him, and began petting him, not that it made him feel any better.  
"Hey little guy, I am sorry about your mum. But…. Would you like to come with us?" The dog looked at him, then looked back at his dead mother and looked back again.

"Mosaru… are you sure about this?" A nervous Shuhei asked the older ninja. Several other ninja were with them, counting their weapons.  
"Shuhei, stop asking me that. You are with me, or not." Shuhei looked around at others, they all seemed as terrified as he did.  
"Does anyone here have any objections?" Mosaru asked, receviving no answer.  
"Good, so in one hour. We leave this room, and we kill Sarada Uchiha."


	29. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The ninja gathered behind Mosaru, all with weapons in hand. They walked by many civilians and other ninja, although none approached them. It was like the wall of tension between the two factions of the survivors locked out all the neutral parties. None of the shinobi following Mosaru had a resolve even comparable to his. While he blamed Sarada for the death of his brother, the others were just frightened by her illness and terrified of the other secrets she may have hid from them. The idea of the humanoids, something stronger than the five kage, would be enough to frighten anyone into doing something rash.  
"Mosaru!" Another ninja ran up to the group, seeming to be another one of Mosaru's supporters.  
"Iowaza?"

Elsewhere, sitting in the medical office Iona worked to safely remove Kabuto's eyes from their sockets as Jinsho inserted his insects into Sarada's body. Himawari sat outside with Shota, the two acting as guards for the entire operation.  
"So… the humanoids? Have you seen them? In Kurama's memory?" Shota asked, despite the awkward tension.  
"No… I… I am too afraid to see them. To see my father die…" Himawari said solemnly. Shota reached over to her and took her hand. Making Himawari pull her hand away, blushing as she done so. Kurama laughed at the young ninja from within, despite feeling a sort of paternal connection to the young Uzumaki he trusted Shota.  
"Himawari! Shota!" Jinsho shouted from inside the medical office, Himawari and Shota dashed inside the room. Himawari ran straight to Sarada's side thinking something was wrong with her.  
"What's wrong with her?"  
"Nothing, we have another problem." Jinsho said, reavling another insect on his finger.  
"What's with that bug?" Shota questioned.  
"After what happened outside, I sent some insects to watch the perimeter. I didn't know which of the perimeter guards, if any, would side with Mosaru."  
"And?"  
"We have a guest."

Himawari and Shota ran to the edge of the perimeter, to investigate the disturbance of Jinsho's insects. While on their way, they soon encountered Iowaza. They called out to him, expecting him to stop and wait for them but they were met by two kunai knives being flung in their direction. Shota pulled out two knives of his own, throwing them to deflect Iowaza's.  
"Himawari!" He shouted, Himawari knew what he intended quickly entering her chakra mode. Using her enhanced speed she quickly got ahead of Iowaza's position. He quickly pulled out another knife but with her eyes and speed Himawari was able to dispatch him fairly easily, using her gentle fist to knock him unconscious.  
"What in the hell? He threw kunai at us." Himawari moaned, Shota quickly caught up with them and lifted Iowaza off of the ground.  
"It's a confusing time, everyone is scared right now."  
"Is there something I should know?" A new ninja approached, not from the Kōyō, a Yoake Ninja.

"What are you doing here?! Didn't Seph understand Sarada's terms!"  
"Seph is dead."  
"What? How?"  
"After you, Himawari Uzumaki defeated Seph. Things at the Yoake changed, many of us began doubting Sephs… survival methods." They knew what he really meant, the way they lured in other surviving factions in an attempt to steal whatever they had. Like they did with the Sharingan and Byakugan that the Kōyō possessed.  
"Seph was desperate to get back the support of the people. So…he made a move."  
"What did he do?" Himwari asked cautiously.  
"He went after the humanoid. Alone."  
"He what?!"  
"Yeah, we found his body two days ok."  
"So, who's in charge now?" Shota asked, joining the debate.  
"Hakkigetsu, the one Sarada fought."  
"So… what he sent you here to re-negotiate our agreement?"  
"No. I found you here by coincidence and I have taken the initive to give you a warning. In good faith so that we may one day come to terms."  
"A warning? What warning?"  
"I'm out here, because I'm investigating the Humanoids goal. And it wasn't until I found you that I think I figured it out."  
"What do you mean until you found us?"  
"When we found Sephs body, his leadership key as you call it? Was gone. And the Humanoid is heading, in this direction."

"It's… heading this way?" Shota said, stepping back from the man, accidently dropping Iowaza. He turned to Himawari, who seemed to have an entirely different reaction to him.  
"Good." She said, her voice filled with determination.  
"Himawari?! What are you saying?!"  
"We can finally face our foe, and I… am going to get justice for my family." The conversation was soon cut short by the arrival of the scouting party. Inojin dropped down from his ink bird, holding his two ink blades to the yoake ninja's throat.  
"Who are you and what the hell do you think you are doing here?"  
"Inojin, let him go. It's ok." Himawari cautioned. Inojin looked at Shota, who despite his obvious fear seemed to agree with her. The other scouts quickly landed alongside them, with Himawari noting an extra member among them. Himawari ran up to Tokuma, or more specifically the dog at his side.  
"Oh my god he is so cute! Where did you find him Tokuma?! Have you named him?!" Himawari kneeled down and began petting the dog, who excitedly made his way into her arms.  
"Hey… he seems to like you more than he likes me… come on, that's not fair. I called him Kokomaru."  
"Hey… Hima… maybe we should head back? See if Sarada is ok?" Shota said, and despite wanting to play with the young dog she knew she had to agree.  
"You, what's your name?" Himawari asked the Yoake ninja.  
"Azura."  
"Go back to the yoake, we will make contact when we are ready."  
"Himawari, are you sure we can let him go?" Inojin asked, signalling for the man to wait on their conversation ending. The yoake ninja was aware something was going on, but for the sake of any future cooperation he knew it was probably best to stay out of it.  
"Yes, we need to get back."

Metal lee brought his led round, kicking one of Mosaru's followers back onto the ground before using his immense speed to rush to another one and knocking him down as well. After Himawari and Shota had to leave Jinsho sent a message to Lee to defend them while they treated Sarada. Since they left however, Mosaru made his move and attacked. Lee with the help of Yaku and Mito were able to push them back into the main hall but more of Mosaru's followers were joining the fight every minute.  
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" Mosaru sent the flames towards them but for Mito a fires style like this was easily blocked.  
"Mosaru! What are you doing?! They aren't the enemy!" Mosaru turned and elbowed his fellow ninja in the face, causing him to fall down.  
"If they defend her, then yes. They are the enemy." Mosaru pulled a sword from his back, and began pushing forward again. His comrades followed slowly behind, but some seeing how far he would go rushed to Lee's side.  
"Idiots, if you get in my way I'll take you down too!" He leapt towards one swinging his sword at one of the men who switched side when Inojin leapt between them with his ink blades.

Himawari arrived down also, the fact she was in her chakra mode caused some of Mosaru's followers to back off of her.  
"Shota, go check on Sarada." She said, Shota ran back through the base into the medical office.  
"This ends now!Mosaru!"Himawari barked, bursting her chakra to enter her tailed beast mode.  
"Hm, your brother would be disgusted. Himawari."  
"What did you say?" Himawari was taken aback, so much so that her tailed best cloak faded.  
"Think about, Sarada used and betrayed your brother."  
"No… that's not what happened. Shut up!"  
"After what Sarada done to the village, to Mirai. Can you really say you believe she didn't do the same to your brother?"  
"I SAID SHUT UP!" Himawari re-entered her tailed beast mode but this time she formed Kurama's head around her body.  
"Enough!" Everyone turned around and they could see Sarada, being carried by Shota and Jinsho.


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Sarada walked down the hall with assistance of Jinsho and Shota, approaching her fighting comrades. Mosaru seemed to forget about everyone else around him, his attention now solely focused on the young Uchiha. He was over joyed at her  
condition, she couldn't walk on her, her clothes were dripping with her sweat and her eyes were still bleeding. That was the part that made him curious, the combination of fresh and dried blood around her eyes. At closer inspection, he  
noticed her eyes were incredibly blood shot, all of this together made him wonder something.  
"Where is Kabuto?" No one answered him causing everyone around them, especially his sympathisers, to start gossiping about the possibilities.  
"He's dead. He sacrificed himself to save me." Sarada spoke plainly, although her closer friends could see that she seemed upset.  
"Why am I not surprised that you can say that so casually?" Mosaru growled.  
"If I was conscious to make the decision, I'd have told him to let me die." Sarada barked back.

"Jinsho, Shota. Let me go." They looked at each other first, as if to make sure they heard her correctly before they let her go. As they did so Sarada seemed to struggle under her own wait, she couldn't stand up straight being too weak from the procedure. She was making an effort to hide it, but she couldn't see properly either.  
"Let's settle this now Mosaru, put an end to this coup of yours."  
"Sarada!" Himawari shouted to intervene, but somehow Sarada found the strength to raise a hand, telling her to stay back. Mosaru seemed to relish in Sarada's recklessness, running in fast to stab her with his sword. As the tip of his blade reached mere inches away from her Mosaru found a solid white chakra between him and his target.  
"Your Susano huh? I'm impressed you can use that in the state you are in. Too bad we all know that you can only defend with that ribcage sus- UH?!" Mosaru suddenly found himself suspended in air, a skeletal arm had grown from Sarada's Susano and grabbed Mosaru. The Susano grew in size and a second arm grew from it followed by a skull. Once a full skeleton, including an extra two arms that were joined to the first two by the shoulders, was formed chakra muscles began encasing the bones and a layer of chakra like skin covered that. Unique to her Susano, once the skin had encased the head something else appeared, at first Himawari thought it was a helmet but at closer inspection she recognised it completely.  
"That looks like… uncle Sasuke." The Susano had developed facial features and hair making it look very similar to  
Sarada's own father. It was also unique that the two arms on the back of the Susano were crossed and seemingly could not move.

"What the… since when can you…"  
"Since always, I have always been perfectly capable of this. Up until now, I have simply chosen not to." Mosaru looked at her eyes, the mankegyou sharingan pattern had changed, having become a mixture of her own and Kabuto's.  
"You…. You took Kabuto's eyes! You killed him!"  
"No, he gave his life for mine. And I have to live with that every single day. Just like I have to live with how Mirai and Hanabi did the same. How I need to live with what I did to the village that day. All these sacrifices will haunt me until the day I die, but it is only because of them that we are all alive. Today." Mosaru simply screamed back at her in rage.  
"Who do you think you are?! What gives you the right to lead us after everything you've done?!" Sarada looked at his followers, then looked back at her own.  
"Mosaru, you have used fear to rally people to your cause. You can see that in your followers, they don't have me as you do, they simply fear for the lives of their families. Whereas everyone behind me, look at how determined they are in comparison. A true leader inspires hope, not fear, Mosaru." Discussing these morals, Sarada couldn't help recall her dream of leading the hidden leaf village.

 _It seemed like forever ago that Sarada was a genin. Those early missions of dealing with escaped pandas and cats and finding thieves. Despite the fact it was only six years ago it felt like a lift time. A few months after the Otsusuki invasion at the chunin exams, team Konohamaru was sent on their first C-rank mission. For them it wasn't particularly difficult, it was harder than what they were used to if anything._  
 _"I guess we can tick off our first c-rank mission, piece of cake!" Boruto boasted, as he often did. Even with his new found maturity in being a shinobi he was still very boastful, a trait he apparently inherited from his father."  
"Kinda wish we could finish the chunin exam. The three of us could easily pass now and then we could get some real  
missions!" He continued, normally this was the kind of thing that would annoy Sarada but she agreed. She wanted to rise through the ranks as quickly as possible, she needed to stand out. Everyone, even Mitsuki, thought Boruto was certain to become Hokage given his heritage.  
"Alright guys, I'm going to hand this report into Shikamaru. I'll see you later." Konohamaru said as he turned to leave. The three students each gave their own version of a farewell to their sensei. Mitsuki, unlike his teammates, stayed alone and thus at a different side of the village so Sarada and Boruto were left to walk alone.  
"So, Sarada, you doing anything with your mum since your dad is on a mission?"  
"No, the fifth has been called to a shinobi union medical summit in the hidden sand so my mum has had to take over at the hospital for the next few days. I think I'm just going to go home and do some reading after dinner."  
"Wait, you're having dinner alone?"  
"Yes, why?"  
"You should come over to ours for dinner, my parents won't mind. And Hima has been asking about you for ages."  
"Boruto, I don't want to intrude."  
"Its fine, mum always makes more than we need anyway, incase dad makes it home for dinner." _

_Despite her objections, it wasn't long before Sarada found herself at the Uzumaki residence. She had been her before when she was younger, not so much since the seventh was appointed and she entered the academy alongside Boruto.  
"Hey mum, I invited Sarada over for dinner is that cool?" Boruto shouted upon arrival, Hinata and Himawari made their way into the hall to greet them.  
"Big brother!" Himawari ran up to greet her big brother, as she always did after a mission. She quickly turned her  
attention to Uchiha.  
"Sarada! Hi!" Himawari let go of her brother, going to greet her Uchiha friend as well. Sarada really enjoyed the  
company of the younger Uzumaki, she had an innocence and humbleness that her brother severely lacked.  
"Hey Himawari!" Hinata followed slowly after her daughter, welcoming Sarada into their home.  
"Sure that's fine, but Boruto do you mind running to the store and getting some more meat for me?"  
"Huh? Why?" Boruto was surprised at the request, it was unlike his mother to be unprepared. Before she could answer Naruto made his way in from the living room, much to his annoyance.  
"The one night I make the effort to make sure your portion isn't wasted old man."  
"Oh, don't bother Boruto, I can just go home it's not a problem."  
"No its fine, Sarada." Both Naruto and Hinata insisted.  
"I'll be back in a bit." Boruto ran out, leaving Sarada with his family. _

_While he was gone, Himawari set the dinner table with the help of a shadow clone while her mother continued making the dinner.  
"Hey, I didn't know you had learned that." Sarada commented, impressed.  
"Yeah, dad and big brother had a day off together a few days ago so they showed me how to do it." Sarada looked to Naruto, she could tell he was a great father to both his children, and a great leader.  
"So Sarada, Boruto tells me you want to be the hokage one day?" Naruto asked, much to her embarrassment.  
"Eh, yes sir."  
"Sarada, you are a guest in my home. You don't need to call me Sir, just Naruto will do tonight."  
"Um, what if I continue to call you seventh?" She said, trying to find some sort of middle ground.  
"I guess that's ok, do you mind if I ask why you want to become hokage?"  
"Well, do you remember when I followed you looking for Papa?" Naruto nodded.  
"I felt so lost, I didn't know who I was, let alone what I wanted in life. And you… you helped me find who I was when I was lost. And I want to do that for other people, I want to do for others what you did for me." She wasn't looking at him right now, it was embarrassing to be admitting this to him but she looked up when she was done to find him crying. _

_"_ _Seventh?"  
"Sorry, I'm just really happy that you feel that way Sarada. I'm sure you'll be a great Hokage."  
"Thanks. I get worried sometimes that the village has already accepted Boruto as hokage." She noticed an odd smile on Naurto's face, which disheartened her.  
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just, your uncle Itachi said something similar about the hokage once."  
"Unlce Itachi? Papa never talks about him?"  
"Well… Itachi had a complicated life. I'm sure Sasuke will tell you everything one day."  
"So… why did you want to become hokage? Mama and Papa said it was your dream growing up too."  
"Oh, well. At first it was because I wanted to be accepted like the Hokage was, growing up a jinchuriki and an orphan I never had anyone in my life so the Hokage was something I aspired towards. But as I grew older, it's because I wanted to protect my friends. And preserve the will of fire."  
"The will of fire?"  
"Yeah, it's something the third hokage believed very strongly in. The idea that everyone in the hidden leaf village is a family, connected by the same desire to protect our loved ones and our home. Now that I think about it, I quote the old man a lot about it haha." _

"Every one of us here is family, Mosaru. And I will not forgive you for trying to break that family apart." Sarada used her Susano to throw Mosaru down onto the ground. He wasn't hurt, he quickly made his way back onto his feet. Unsure as to what he was going to do.  
"Now leave." Sarada commanded.  
"Leave and never come back, you are no longer welcome here."  
"Are you serious?"  
"Leave!" Sarada swiped an arm of her Susano to intimidate him but it was too much, her eyes weren't ready to maintain an active Susano for this long. The last of her strength faded as the chakra warrior disappeared, losing her balance and falling to the ground unconscious. Mosaru took the opportunity, drawing his weapon and  
making his way towards her again when he was suddenly pushed back by something invisible. Finding himself on the ground yet again, he looked up to see Himawari with an open palm.

"What the…" Next to her, Tokuma looked between her and Mosaru unsure as to what she did.  
"Amazing… she was able to use the technique on her first attempt. Admittedly a far weaker version but she was able to use my chakra to make up the difference." Kurama marvelled at his jinchuriki.  
"Himawari…" Mosaru growled.  
"Mosaru." Himawari spoke, it seemed like barely more than a whisper but there was something in her voice that made Mosaru stop in his tracks.  
"If you mention my brother again in an attempt to manipulate me… I will kill you." Mosaru looked in her eyes, seeing neither the deep blue eyes nor the pale featureless ones but rather the blood lust filled eyes of the fox with in her. They induced some kind of fear like genjutsu, brining Mosaru face to face with the fox inside.  
Mosaru cowered back.  
"Now leave." Himawari commanded.


	31. Interlude 1

So, thus brings an end to part one of "the end of the world". Now I am taking a short break on this story to work on other stories, namely my Bleach x Naruto fanfiction which is set in the same chronology as this fanfiction and thus is a prequel of sorts. However, while I am working on this "the end of the world story" will continue in the form of the first Interlude to the story. This interlude, and another which will follow at the end of part 2 is a multi chapter flashback similar to kakashi gaiden in the naruto manga. These interludes are pre-written by me for this exact reason, allowing me to continue updating while taking a break from the main events of the interlude is called "Love Born of Heart Break"


	32. Love Born of Heart break Part 1

**There appears to be an issue with this chapter where some formatting language remains visible on desktop devices, I am sorry about this. I am unsure how to fix it at this time, but there seems to be no problems on mobile devices.**

* * *

Sarada, for the second time in less than a day, found herself waking in the medical office. At her first her vison was blurred but she expected to see all her friends and advisors with her but as her vision came into focus she only saw one person.  
"Himawari…"  
"Hey Sarada." There was a tense awkwardness between them. Sarada knew what she needed to say, but she didn't know how to say it.  
"I asked if we could have some privacy when you woke up, there is some things we need to catch you up on but… I need to hear it from you. You and Boruto?" Himawari asked, nervously.  
"Yes… We were…"  
"For how long?" Sarada was surprised that Himawari interrupted her, but she didn't feel like she had the right to say that.  
"It started before E-day, the last mission Boruto and I had together." The awkward atmosphere seemed to shift, Himawari recalled that mission or rather she recalled its outcome.  
"You mean the mission where…?"  
"Yes… that mission."

*three years ago*

"Sarada! Your breakfast is ready!" Sakura shouted up the stairs to her young daughter. Sarada ran down the stairs, already ready to leave for her mission. She sat down at the table across from her father, who drank his tea while reading a book that was placed on the desk.  
"Good morning Papa." She said happily, beginning her breakfast.  
"Good morning." Since finally properly settling down with his new family Sasuke still hadn't dropped his near emotionless exterior. Even now only rarely did he show his feelings.  
"So you have a mission today?" Sakura asked sitting down next to her daughter.  
"Yeah, it's a B-Rank mission and it's our first mission without Konohamaru Sensei since we are all chunin now." Sarada was clearly excited by the prospect.  
"Has lord seventh told you what the mission is?" Sakura asked, worriedly.  
"No he hasn't, I don't think we were meant to know it was a B-rank mission but Konohamuru sensei is worried about us going off on our own for the first time so he had us going over all our trainging yesterday." She laughed, turning to her mother.  
"By the way, I know that you call lord seventh by his name when I'm not here. You always sound like you're forcing it." She continued to laugh as Sakura got embarresed.  
"Oh and Papa always laughs when you call him that too." Sasuke stopped mid sip of tea, glaring at his daughter as his wife glared at him.

Across the village another young ninja enjoyed a part of their morning routine.  
"So, anything special happening in class today Hima?"  
"Yeah, Aburame Sensei told me that we are going on field training today." Himawari spoke gleefully, although it wasn't the class she was excited about. Their father, the seventh hokage, didn't have a lot of time to spend with his children and after the otsutsuki invasion Boruto was the same. Boruto became very serious in his goals to surpass his father and become a ninja like Sasuke thus most of his free time was spent training. Despite this, Boruto made it a personal mission to walk his sister to the academy whenever he wasn't on an official mission, which after he became a chunin was less than either of them would have liked.  
"Field training huh? I remember that, where are you having it?"  
"Eh, I'm not sure. I think we are having joint field training with the hidden sand so somewhere between here and there."

"That sounds cool, this will be your first time outside the village without mom and dad huh?" Boruto realised.  
"Yeah, I'm not too scared though. Do you know Aburame sensei told me I'm not allowed to use my byakugan during the field training?! Unless it's an 'emergency'!" Himawari pouted.  
"Well, it wouldn't be fair to other students now would it Hima?"  
"Hey! You only agree because you're jealous that you didn't inherit them!" She said, crossing her arms and winking at her brother. Boruto grabbed his little sister's hair and lowering himself to her eye level.  
"What was that? You know I'm a chunin now right? I'm not scared of your 'lock on' joke anymore, Hima!" He flicked his sister's nose. Before long they had arrived at the academy and Boruto embraced his little sister.  
"Alright Himawari, good luck with your field training I'll see you when I get back from my mission." Boruto smiled as he waved to his little sister as she ran into the academy.

Team Konohamaru had gathered in the Hokage's office, Konohamaru stood next to the Hokage at the opposite side of the desk from his team. He seemed to very nervous.  
"Your mission is as follows, escort a band of merchants that are presenting high end products to the feudal lords."  
"Escorting merchants? Really? That's our B-rank mission?! Come on." Boruto complained to his father about how boring he thought the mission was.  
"Boruto!" Konohamaru shouted at his young student. The hokage raised his hand signalling the jonin to stop.  
"Boruto, some of these products sell for more than the majority of the homes in the village. It is a high value target."  
"More than a home? For something that they just carry around in carts?!" Boruto said, shocked. Sarada elbowed her friend, clearly irritated at the outbursts. The hokage smiled at this, he couldn't help but see himself with Sarada's mother in the same situation years ago when he looked at them.  
"Since this is your first mission without Konohamaru it's important you decide amongst yourselves who's leading the team." Boruto and Mistuki turned to each other.  
"Sarada." They said in unison. Sarada laughed nervously at it but with a hint of pride. The hokage seemed amused by this comment as well, but he handed out the mission form to the team.  
"Very well, you leave in two hours."

Once the chunin left the hokage turned to their jonin leader with a much more serious look on his face.  
"Konohamaru, are you ready for your mission report now." He turned to him, the nervousness he wore on his face seemed to vanish.  
"I've already spoke to my contacts in the Unions joint anbu black ops, and I have a theory."  
"Go on, Konohamaru." Shikamaru entered the room.  
"Apparently, a few hours after the break in one of the most heavily tracked anti-union terrorist groups had a lot of money transferred to a single location."  
"That makes sense, some of the weapons developed by the scientific ninja tool team could be used to turn an ordinary bandit into a formidable jonin level ninja with little time." Shikamaru commented/  
"We have to clean this mess up quickly Konohamaru. The amount of Kote taken from that vault could be used to arm an entire army. That would be a war even the union would struggle with." Naruto pointed out.  
"I think it would be best if we brought in some help then, people accustomed to keeping secrets." Shikamaru voiced, with a clear person in mind.  
"Sasuke, I'll go see him myself. Shikamaru, you should go see Mirai, she's proven many times she can be trusted." The hokage said, getting up and putting on his jacket.

"You look scared Sarada! Maybe we should have put someone else in charge!" Boruto teased.  
"Shut up Boruto! You idiot!" Sarada shouted back at him as they left the village.  
"Hey I'm just saying, this is the first time you are in charge! It'd be ok if you were scared. I could be in charge if you want." Boruto continued, much to Sarada's annoyance. Mitsuki just laughed, not really at Sarada but at both of them.  
"You know Boruto, you need to follow my instructions on this mission. So be quiet." She said, smirking.  
"Yeah…. I'm not going to do that." He smiled back, causing her to swing for him.  
"I think this mission is going to be fun, don't you guys?" Mitsuki finally joining in on the conversation.


	33. Love Born of Heart break Part 2

"Team Konohamaru reporting for duty, Lord Hoshi." Sarada said, standing straight along with her team mates.  
"At ease." The lord of the land of fire ordered them.  
"I am very honoured that the leaf village honoured my request and allowed me to have this team. I was very impressed during the last chunin exams by all three of you." He continued, Sarada blushed a little, Boruto seemed to take pride in the statement and Mitsuki had no noticeable reaction.  
"And I must say it is an honour to make your acquaintance, Boruto Uzumaki." He reached his hand out, Boruto reaching back.  
"The honour is mine." He answered back.  
"There is no need for the modesty, Mr Uzumaki. You have quite the heritage, only going back two generations you are descendant from two Hokage and one Hyuga clan head and your aunt is the current clan head. Not to mention you recently helped your father save the entire world. I expect you will be the next Hokage, no?"  
"Nah." The lord was taken aback by Borutos's sudden informality.  
"The next Hokage, Lord Hoshi. Is to your left." Boruto nodded his head in Sarada's direction.

The lord turned to the young Uchiha.  
"Ah, Miss Uchiha. I can't say I know your father well, but my father had a few dealings with your grandfather, Fugaku Uchiha." He seemed to dismiss Sarada, he was likely not a fan of Sasuke's either.  
"And you eh, Mitsuki? I know little of your origin."  
"Nothing worth noting, my lord." Mitsuki may have held his father high regard. But he was aware that this opinion was not a popular one. The lord turned away from the ninja, signalling them to follow him.

"I've already tended to my business with these merchants so you need not spend any more time here in my estate. I believe the lord of the land of wind is expecting you in three days. So you best be on your way" He told them. Boruto looked at the merchants, they were younger than he expected none of them looked any older than his father. There was also less of them than he imagined, only four in total and the cart was a lot smaller. He assumed that inside the cart was a multitude of expensive jewels and sculptures.  
"Are you men ready to go?"  
"Yes ma'am."

Within the hour the team, alongside the merchants had already left. Now it was clear, not just to Boruto but to Mitsuki and Sarada as well, that something wasn't right with this group of merchants. They had guarded merchants on missions before with Konohamaru, normally they would talk, and joke and gossip between towns but this group they were silent and cold. Despite this the team carried on their mission like normal, they took it in turns to scout a head before reporting back for the next person to scout a head. Once they left the land of fires border and entered the land of winds, things changed.

As they walked down a steep path at the side of a mountain, nearing its base Sarada could just about see the beginning of the land of winds dessert land scape, meaning the mission was almost over. Once they arrived at the lord of the land of winds estate they would be relieved by a squad of hidden sand ninja.  
"And to think Konohamaru sensei was worried about our B-rank mission without him, looks like someone gets to brag about their leadership skills to my old man." Boruto said, massive grin towards Sarada. Sarada blushed before reprimanding Boruto to stay focused. Mitsuki returned shortly afterwards, allowing Boruto to take his leave.

Boruto, after setting any traps for people who might be following them began to scout a head when he heard something. He jumped between the trees towards the dessert. Looking around he couldn't see anything noteworthy, but he still found himself on edge. Before long he found himself on a tree, marked with a paper bomb. The bomb exploded, pushing Boruto through the air and alerting the others to the imminent threat. Two ninja appeared before a surprised Boruto and another two confronted his team mates. Boruto quickly used his wind style rasen blasts to keep his enemies at a distance, but they continued to push forward, pressing their advantage in numbers. Meanwhile, Sarada found herself in the inverse situation with her enemy pushing her back, keeping her at a distance to avoid her tremendous strength.

One ninja raised a single arm, pointing it toward Sarada and launching a massive torrent of high pressure water at her. Sarada jumped out of the way, not having time to land on her feet.  
'He created that level of water style jutsu from the air around him….without a single hand sign… who is this guy!' A horrified Sarada thought. Across the forest Boruto decided to turn the advantage back to his side.

'If they wanted to make this a close quarters fight, their loss.' Boruto dived towards them with open palms, dodging a punch and a sword strike before stricking both in their abdomen with an open palm. Boruto smirked momentarily before one of them struck him across the face.  
"What?!" He shouted, whipping a small smear of blood from his face. The man with the sword cut his top open, revealing some kind of light weight body armour.  
"Chakra armour kid, specially designed by the hidden cloud after the third great ninja war for combating the gentle fist fighting style. It's not perfect, but without the Byakugan you won't be able to see the weaknesses in it. Will you?" Boruto growled at the man.  
'This is bad…these guys are clearly experts in close range combat and with this being two on one keeping them at a distance with mid-range ninjutsu will be tough. And they can defend against my gentle fist and somehow they know I don't have the Byakugan. I've never used this in actual combat but hey… I don't have a choice.'  
"Have you guys been talking to my lil' sister? Give me a break about the Byakugan dattebasa." Boruto took a scroll from his weapons pouch opening it released his own Japanese long sword.  
'I don't think I can take them both on my own, I'll need to regroup with the others.'

"Fire style: fire ball jutsu!" Sarada fired her jutsu towards her second opponent while Mitsuki was occupying the first one but to her horror he was just as skilled in the water style as his partner and this time he used an offensive jutsu to counter hers.  
"Water style: water dragon jutsu!" The water dragon extinguished Sarada's flames with ease, before crashing in the young Uchiha sending her toward the rocks.  
"Sarada!" Mitsuki turned to look at his comrade. Turing back to his opponent he made a series of hand signs.  
"Earth style: Shadow snake pit!" He slammed both hands onto the ground, quickly a pack of snakes rose up from the ground wrapping themselves around the enemy shinobi. Mitsuki took the opportunity to jump back onto higher ground and use his elongated arms to pull Sarada from the water. Once he had her, they swung round back to the merchant's cart.

The sound of clashing steel rang through Boruto's ears as his sword struck the sword of his enemies, having blocked an attack Boruto pushing his sword down taking the enemies blade with it. Boruto took a handoff of his sword bringing it back behind him forming a rasengan. Boruto roared as he swung the chakra orb towards his enemy who quickly dodged, forced to leave his sword behind. The second ninja came from behind him, two curved kunai joined by a chain in each hand swinging them towards Boruto. Boruto raised his rand, creating a rasen wind. Stuck in mid-air the man used his unique ninja tool in conjunction with a nearby tree to dodge. Taking the opening he had made, Boruto dashed back to his comrades.

"You know, I was really hoping the two I was fighting were on their own." Boruto said, landing next to his two friends. He looked down to the one who Mitsuki had trapped and witnessed him use a lightning style jutsu, with no hand signs, to escape the snakes.  
"Boruto, these guys. They are both high level water style users, and they are keeping me away from them. They have intel on me!"  
"Yeah, on me too. They are wearing some kind of light weight armour that protects against the gentle fist. Plus they seem to know my preference is mid-range ninjutsu." In that moment, Mitsuki's eyes widened in horror the previous day flashing back in his mind. He sharply turned around, observing the area behind him. While he couldn't see the merchants, he was deeply shocked at whatever he saw.  
"Boruto! Sarada!" Turning back to his comrades, he used his elongated arms to push them off of the small mountain side path they were on, remaining in the same spot himself. Both Sarada and Boruto looked at their friend in confusion when suddenly, the merchants cart which they were standing right next to moments before: exploded.  
"MITSUKI?!" Both Sarada and Boruto screamed. The explosion was massive, at least twice the size of the cart. The rubble bashed into Boruto and Sarada as they made their way to the ground. From the ground, Boruto seen four shadows through the smoke above the explosion and suddenly it dawned on him as well. He quickly got up, through the cover of the smoke, picking up Sarada and making his way away from the battle. The four shadows jumped down next to the four ninja they had previously been fighting. The four shadows were the merchants they were escorting. It was so clear now, this entire mission; was a trap.


	34. Love Born of Heart break Part 3

Sarada panted rapidly, not out of exhaustion but of shock. One of her closest friends, her team mate of three years, Mitsuki had just died in front of her. Boruto was still carrying her in his arms, tears in his own eyes. It wasn't that Sarada couldn't run on her own, it was more that her brain couldn't tell her body to do it. Boruto jumped down from the trees into a small cave that he had found when he was scouting a head earlier in the mission. He sat Sarada down, and she just stared into his eyes. They were both crying now but neither of them said a word. They both wanted to ask each other if they were ok but they already knew the answer. They just kept playing that moment over and over again in their head. Sarada tried to piece together what was going but she was too distraught to think clearly.

"Boruto… what's going on?" She said, her heart caught in her throat.  
"This mission was a set up, they wanted us here to ambush. I don't know if the feudal lord is behind this or if he is being manipulated or whatever…" Sarada suddenly thought back to when they met the feudal lord. He requested this team? And the merchants they were guarding just so happened to be ninja targeting her squad? What were the chances of that?  
"Sarada, did you see them use any hand signs at all? Even with your sharingan?"  
"…No why?"  
"I think they were using kote"  
"What?!"  
"I used one myself remember, I'd recognise that usage anywhere."

"Lord seventh!" Konohamaru burst into the hokages office, without even knocking much to Shikamaru's protest. Konohamaru seemed exhausted, he must have ran quiet a way to get here.  
"What wrong Konohamaru?" Naruto said, waving Shikamaru to calm down.  
"We were able to trace some of the money that was transferred back to its original source…." He said, face filled with panic.  
"And? Spit it out Konohamaru." Shikamaru encouraged.  
"It traces back to the lord of the land of fire!"  
"What?!" Naruto jumped up from his seat, turning to both of his trusties in a great panic.  
"His request for your team then… it was a trap." A shocked Shikamaru said.  
"Yeah, Mirai and Sasuke are already on their way to find them. Sasuke told me to report to you before doing anything."  
"Go to the feudal lords, find out if he was behind this or if it was someone in his staff." Naruto barked, clearly enraged.

"Boruto, what are we going to do?" Sarada said, her mind still focused on Mitsuki. Normally Boruto would have joked about how she was in charge yet asking him for suggestions. Unfortunately Boruto wasn't thinking much clearer, he was only a few steps ahead of her.  
"Well, we are outnumbered, out gunned and out classed. Maybe it would be best to hide out here?"  
"They will find us before anyone comes looking for us, we were twelve hours away from the lord of land of winds. Which means we have twelve hours before anyone in the village becomes concerned about us. And we are at least eighteen hours away from the village." Sarada pointed out, noting the flaw in Boruto's plan.  
"Maybe if we keep moving…" She went to adjust his plan.  
"No, you're right. We can't avoid them for that length of time. We can't take the chance they don't have a sensor type among them."

"I have an idea." He said, any sadness in his voice had faded, his voice was now filled with resolve.  
"What is it?" She said, puzzled and taken aback by his resolve.  
"Sarada, run." He looked straight at her.  
"What? And leave you? I thought you had gotten smarter in the last few years Boruto!" She snapped at him in complete disgust.  
"SHUT UP SARADA!" She moved back away from him.  
"I just watched one of the most important people in my life die, I don't need to see you die as well. If I… if I hold them off for a while you might be able to get far away enough that help will find you."  
"Boruto… there's eight of them out there! You'll never.." She stopped, just staring at him.  
"You aren't planning on surviving are you?! You are planning on sacrificing yourself for me?!" She stood up and screamed at him, right in his face. He didn't answer her, he just closed his eyes and made a hand sign.

"Boruto answer me!" She screamed, again. Still he didn't answer, with her sharingan still active she could see that he was forcing his chakra into his eyes. His eye lids began to tremble, the veins in his forehead pulsing.  
'Come on… It's been years since I've tried this… I need this! I need this to protect her!' He prayed to himself. His eyes began to bleed, his body trembling.  
"Boruto?!" She reached for his face, wanting to stop him. Eventually, his chakra began to slow down finally flowing into his eyes naturally. His eye lids opened like flood gates, the blood tears becoming thicker as the blue faded from his eyes and the veins around them became thicker. His eyes were now trait less and white, something Sarada had seen before. The eyes that his sister and mother possessed, the byakugan. In the same moment, as Sarada seen his eyes changed, her own eyes changed changing from a two tomoe sharingan into the fully mature three tomoe variant. Her change wasn't as obvious so Boruto didn't notice.

He gasped for air, forcing his eyes active for the first time was stressful on his chakra network. He turned to the girl at his side again.  
"Look, with these eyes, I'll last a little longer now. I'll be able to guarantee you make it out of here." He was still trying to catch his breathe.  
"No." Sarada screamed.  
"Sarada…."  
"You promised me you'd be by my side when I became hokage! That you'd be my right hand! Didn't you?!" She screamed at him again.  
"Yes, I did." He seemed sad again, almost struggling to retain eye contact.  
"But… if it was the only way you could still be hokage, I'd lay down right here." Sarada was shocked, she nearly started crying again.  
"Boruto…." She bit her lip as the tears started to roll out.  
"I don't want to be hokage if you aren't there with me!" She cried to him, leaning closer to him.  
"Sarada! You can't throw away your life like this! Not here! I want you to be hokage and that won't happen if you…"

As he shouted back at her, he found himself getting closer and closer to her face. As his voice trailed off the distance closed and they found their lips pressed against one another's. Initially caught in the awkwardness they soon held each other in their arms. For the briefest of moments, they forgot everything that was going on around them. They parted for a moment, but soon kissed again this time deeper than the first. Their respective tears dipped onto the ground at the same time, together. As the tears hit the ground the cave was shaken by some kind of earth style jutsu, shaking the pair apart and knocking them to the ground.

Boruto used his new eyes to look outside and he seen the eight of them outside, Boruto was right they defiantly had a sensor type among them. He looked back at Sarada, they had spent so much time arguing his plan was no longer an option. He frowned at her but surprisingly Sarada smiled back at him. He gave her a questioning expression.  
"Together, or not at all." She said, bringing her fist up to encourage him. He smiled back at her.  
"Together or not at all." He said back.


	35. Love Born of Heart break Part 4

"Are you sure they are in there?" One of the men turned to ask the other.  
"Yes, I can defiantly sense their chakra inside. Boruto Uzumaki's charka flow became unusually erratic for a moment but it appears to have settled now." The man, the sensor replied. The first man, the oldest and evidently the leader of the group nodded to one his comrades on his other side. This man took a mini scroll and inserted into the device on his wrist, causing a small quake in the area. After a few minutes, they spotted a small pack of smoke bombs land outside the save entrance before they exploded, obscuring the entrance with a large field of purple smoke.

One of Boruto's rasen wind blasts burst through the side of the smoke, not aimed at a particular opponent he swung it round like a blade, forcing some of the enemy to jump into the air to avoid the attack. Once they were in the air, Boruto targeted them with pinpoint rasen blasts and by doing so was able to drill holes through two of the enemy ninja, including the sensor type, killing them. The leader, who had managed to avoid the attack without jumping into that high in the air cursed the uselessness of his fallen comrades before launching his own wind style jutsu to clear the smoke revealing Boruto, armed with his new byakugan, with Sarada at his side.  
"What?! The byakugan!" He said, confused, pulling out a ninja info card from his back pocket.  
"Our intel says that he isn't capable of using the Byakugan!" Angry he launched a second jutsu, a large fire style jutsu towards them forcing them to dodge in separate directions.  
"GO NOW" he commanded his underlings.

The same as before, two ninja specialising in close range combat attacked Boruto while two with kote fended off Sarada with long to mid-range water style jutsu. Even with his sword and new eyes Boruto soon found himself on the defensive and Sarada even with a more mature sharingan she was not able to read the attacks when no hand signs were made. As one ninja launched a water style, which Sarada dodged the other brought his hands to the ground using the dark swamp ninjutsu catching her inside it.  
"Sarada!" Boruto screamed, but not before turning to block a sword strike with his own sword. With perfect timing the other ninja slid behind him, swiping his kunai at his ankles. Boruto jumped to avoid this but soon found that his other enemy was waiting for this, taking the opportunity to knock him down with his free arm.  
As both sets of ninja prepared to end the fight they were taken aback by massive grins on the faces of the leaf ninja.

Sarada extended both her arms out with an open palm as visible chakra began to swirl and before they could react both ninja found themselves taken down by the rasen wind blast. Across the opening, Boruto leapt up faster than he was moving previously pushing his fist through the stomach of one ninja. He coughed blood, and as Boruto twisted his fist the life behind his eyes began to fade. The sword ninja, shocked swung down for Boruto's neck to end things but watched in horror as one of his byakugan suddenly became a sharingan. Boruto span on the spot and in the same motion, used his sword to deflect his opponents, pinning it to the ground, and used an incredible amount of strength in a kick to spin the ninjas end all the way around. As he watched another four of his comrades lie down lifeless on the ground the leader was met with what seemed like a stupid question.  
"What just happened?" The last other enemy asked, the leader simply growled at him as in a puff of smoke it was revealed that Boruto and Sarada had transformed into one another in order to take out the ones skilled in their respective weaknesses.

"Boruto! Quickly!" Sarada shouted to him as she ran in his direction. Using another rasen technique Boruto was able to push the mud around his ankles away before making his way towards her. She made a series of hand signs as he prepared two more rasen blasts.  
"Fire style: Fireball Jutsu!"  
"Wind style: Super rasen blast!" The two ninja they opposed stopped their bickering one using the kote to create a water wall and another used his kote to create a wind wall to enhance it. Using a remarkable amount of speed they both moved around the steam obscuring the view hoping to catch the two young ninja in a pincer formation but found no one there. Shocked they looked from side to side before looking up, seeing Sarada swinging her foot down like an axe causing the ground below to crumble creating a large crater. Boruto, who had leapt into the steam leapt back out with his sword bound straight for the leader ninja. The man brought his arm up to block, the kote broke under the force from the sword.  
"Nice try kid, but too bad for you I have two kote." He taunted activating his second kote.  
"I know." Boruto laughed, bringing his free hand round revealing a kunai with three lit paper bombs. As the steam cleared he could see another Boruto.  
"A shadow clone?!" The clone exploded.

"Jonsho!" The remaining shinobi screamed. From the smoke he seen the pieces of the second kote as well as some burned fabric but soon the leader, Jonsho emerged unharmed.  
"Calm down you idiot. I'm fine."  
'Jonsho… I know that name.' Sarada thought to herself as she regrouped with her friend.  
"He used the kote to activate some kind of skin hardening technique, it saved him but looks like he couldn't apply it to the kote itself." Boruto explained.  
"I know, I saw it happen."  
"You did? How?"  
"I think my eyes have finally matured fully." She said, focusing her sharingan onto the enemy.

"Damnit, I guess it's time to stop playing around. Time to kill them." Jonsho said.  
"I have to admit, I am quite impressed with the two of you. That was a good formation you came out with just now. But I'm afraid this is where it gets difficult… you see. Three out of the six men you just killed weren't even ninja. They were merely bandits armed with kote. My other four comrades are all chunin, like yourself although not as elite it would seem."  
"Jonsho! Jonsho the storm caller, former leader of the hidden cloud anbu!" Sarada shouted, in a panic.  
"What?" Boruto turned to her.  
"This guy… he's that terrorist that was on the news a few months ago. The one that attempted a coup in the hidden cloud to break up the shinobi union!" Boruto didn't really pay attention to the news, unless his father was on that is.  
"Quite right girl. Gale Style: Laser circus!" He brought two hands forward together in a hand sign, releasing a barrage of lasers towards them. Boruto and Sarada split up but found these tracking lasers were capable of that as well.  
"Tuko, look for an opening to kill them." Jusho said to his comrade.

After gaining some distance, Boruto turned and attempted to use his rasen blast to stop the lasers but this failed the boy and the lasers ripped through his body.  
"Boruto!" Sarada turned to him, but found the lasers had surrounded her. Using her sharingan she was able to out manuever them but soon Tuko was apon her, armed with a large lightning imbued axe.  
"Die!" Sarada found nothing she could do, the lasers were coming at her in the only way she could dodge and she didn't have a technique that could block a lightning imbued axe. She closed her eyes, it was over.

The axe struck, but not her flesh and the lasers bounced off of something. She opened her eyes to see her father, and she was inside his Susano.  
"Papa! What are you…"  
"We were able to figure out this mission was a set-up. Once we did, I used my Susano to fly us out here." Sarada turned quickly and saw that Mirai was applying some emergency first aid to Boruto.


	36. Love Born of Heart break Part 5

*Present day*

"After that, Papa was easily able to defeat the remaining two ninja. The lord of the land of fire had arranged the whole thing, they later found out that some of the other lords were involved too. They were displeased that the villages sought the stability of the union rather than profit for the nation, and wanted to remind the nations of their importance. The idea was to have Jonsho, a famous rouge cloud ninja kill me and Boruto. The children of the most high profile leaf ninja and start a war."  
"And you and Boruto?"  
"We never mentioned the kiss in our report, and we didn't talk about it either. In fact, after Mitsuki's funeral we didn't speak for nearly a month. I'm sure it was the same for him but, I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss but that memory, it was tied to Mitsukis deaths so pursuing it felt… wrong."  
"Wow… I didn't even realise. I just assumed back then you were both dealing with his death privately.  
"We were and we weren't, it was complicated. But eventually I approached him and we… talked. We actually arranged to go on our first date during that talk."  
"Really?! You went on a date and neither of you told me?! When was that?!" Sarada didn't answer, but that was all the answer Himawari needed.  
"No…." Himawari asked, she didn't want to believe it.  
"E-day."


	37. Love Born of Heart break Part 6

*three months after Mitsuki's death*

Boruto walked through what remained of what was once Tanzaku town. On all sides he seen partially destroyed buildings, corpses covered by sheets, curtains, whatever they could be used. There was more leaf survivors than could possibly fit in what remained of this small town so many of them were stuck, lying in the streets holding their family near a fire for heat. Weather it was the overcast skies above or the overall feelings oozing from the people around Boruto saw everything as if through a grey filter. It had been three months since E-day, and now people were finally beginning to accept that this was the reality they lived in now, however cruel.

"Big brother! Over here!" Himawari shouted to her brother. Boruto ran back and embraced his younger sister, every day was a gift now. Every time they said goodbye might have been the last. Boruto had just returned from a scouting mission with his aunt, looking for a larger base of operations to no avail.  
"You'll never guess what I found!" Himawari took her older brother by the hand, taking them into the small hut that was their home for now. Himawari reached into her bag and pulled out a small tub before handing it to her brother who laughed when he seen it.  
"Instant ramen, mom would freak if she seen us with this datebasa." He laughed, for the most part Boruto and Himawari retained a happy exterior, partly for each other but mostly for Sarada. Since E-day Sarada had stayed with Boruto and Himawari, but she wasn't really Sarada anymore.

She barely spoke, she barely ate, and she barely slept. She was like a ghost of her former self. It hurt them both immensely to see Sarada like that but they knew there was nothing they could do for her other than just be there. Boruto looked around, he couldn't see her.  
"Hey Hima, where is Sarada?"  
"Eh, I don't know. I went to see Kurama for a bit earlier and when I came back she was gone."  
"Oh, I'm going to go look for her. Could you go find something we could use to heat the ramen?" Himawari nodded before running from her brother. Boruto activated his byakugan, which was very natural to him now. He could not find her within the limits of the town but soon found her in abandoned building just past the outskirts.

He made his way towards the building, with only one of his eyes changed now. Using one to watch Sarada and the other to navigate what was around him. He could see her tears and each one was like a dagger in his own heart. He saw her trembling arms, and in one hand he seen a kunai knife. Fearing the worst he ran towards her, as fast as he could. Sarada took the knife, bringing to her own wrist as she cried. Just as she began to press it onto her wrist Boruto appeared, grabbing her hand and stopping her.

"Sarada?! What the hell do you think you are doing?!" He shouted at her. She didn't look up. She just continued to cry.  
"Go away Boruto. Just leave me be." She said, clearly in pain. This hurt him, she didn't want him there? In her final moments, even if that's not what he wanted.  
"Sarada, talk to me. You don't have to do this."  
"Yes, I do."  
"Sarada…" He put his free hand on his friends shoulder, moving it up onto her head. He gently moved her head so that she was looking him in the eye. He was shocked at what he seen, he had expected to see pain or sadness. But what he seen was actually overwhelming fear in her eyes. As their eyes met she quickly knocked his hand away so that she could hide within her arms again, having dropped the knife.

"Boruto...Please just leave. I... can't bare this anymore."  
"Sarada this isn't like you, I know that we've been through is… indescribable but you are the strongest person I've ever known. If anyone can handle this it is you." He said, placing his arms around her, desperate for her to open up to him.  
"I… I'm not strong enough." She said. Boruto didn't respond, he just listened hoping she would continue.  
"I don't deserve your care Boruto, please… just go. You don't have to protect me anymore. Since I'll never become the hokage." Boruto thought back to something he once told her, that he'd always protect her when she became hokage. During a mission when he received an injury meant for her he adjusted that to that he'd protect so she could become hokage.

"I know what I said before, but I was just a dumb kid. I thought my dream was to become a shinobi like your dad but I was wrong. That was only my dream because of how vital your dad was to my dad. My real dream, Sarada Uchiha…" He stopped there, waiting for her to look up at him.  
"Is to be whatever you need me to be." Sarada began to cry again, biting her lip trying to hold it it.  
"JUST STOP BORUTO! STOP TRYING TO BE SO DAMN PERFECT! STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER THAT IS WHAT IS HURTING ME SO MUCH!" She got up, pushing him away from her as she did so.  
"I CAN'T LOOK AT YOU ANYMORE! YOUR EYE'S. THOSE BLUE EYES THAT I USE TO LOVE SO MUCH ARE KILLING ME LILTTLE BY LITTLE EVERYDAY!" She was panting, putting so much energy into her voice.  
"YOU KEEP LOOKING AT ME LIKE YOU HAVE FOR YEARS! AND I CAN'T BARE THE THOUGHT OF HOW YOU ARE GOING TO LOOK AT ME ONCE YOU—." She stopped herself.  
"Once I what?" She was frozen now, she fell back down to the ground.  
"I- can't. I can't tell you… once you do you'll the way you look at me will change forever."  
"Sarada..." He took her hand.

"I know." She was shocked, she pulled her hand from his.  
"You what…"  
"I know what happened." He took her hand again.  
"I know about your right eye."  
"How?..." Boruto sat down at her side.  
"Mirai told me.."  
"and…. You don't hate me?" She asked, terrified.  
"Sarada, I could never hate you. What happened wasn't your fault." Just as she began to cry again she turned around, wrapping her arms around him, crying into his chest. Crying and crying, letting out the sadness and the guilt she had held in for months. She cried into his chest before she eventually passed out in his arms.

Hours later, she awoke still in his arms. Somehow she just knew that he hadn't slept the entire time. Not speaking, she reached up to his face and kissed him. As Boruto kissed back, she brought the rest of her body round climbing on top of him as she deepened the kiss. As the kiss got deeper and deeper Boruto eventually broke it, gasping for air.  
"Sara…"  
"Boruto, please… I need this." She held his face again, pulling him back in for another, more passionate kiss.


	38. Love Born of Heart break Final Part

*Present day*

"As you know, shortly after that Mirai sacrificed herself and I was left in charge. Boruto helped me not only with running the day to day of our survival, but he helped me…on a personal level as well." Her face became red as she turned away from Himawari.  
"I need you to know though Himawari, it wasn't just about…I… I…I loved your brother!" She reached for Himawari's hand but stopped half way, nervous to reach out to her friend but Himawari took her hand first.  
"I know, Sarada." She smiled.  
"I remember when you and Boruto got put in the same team and you started to spend more time together I use to ask Boruto if you were his girlfriend. I always thought you two would be great together."  
"Himawari… I am so sorry that I never told you sooner. I should have… I was just scared that you would hate me and blame me for Boruto's death."  
"I could never hate you Sarada, I know you've been distant because you are so busy keeping all of us together and alive. You know I am use to that haha." Sarada laughed nervously at this as well.  
"Besides, when we were little I use to think of you like my big sister, it's nice to think you might have been one day." Sarada blushed immensely.  
"Himawari?! Ehhh" Himawari giggled at Sarada's reaction. Despite the awkwardness, Himawari felt this had brought the two of them closer to the friendship or pseudo sibling relationship they had before the invasion and it made her really happy. The tender moment however was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Jinsho.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I don't think we can afford to wait much longer."  
"Much longer for what?"  
"Everyone knows that a Yoake ninja approached us while we were having our… civil war."  
"A yoake ninja approached us?!" Sarada leapt up, two fast, causing her to nearly fall out of bed.  
"Yes, Seph is dead… and…"  
"And what?"  
"The humanoid is coming. The humanoid is coming for us."


	39. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

A few days had passed, and life in the Kōyō had mostly returned to how it was before the small civil war. With the exception of how everyone now knew about the humanoids and more importantly, that a humanoid was coming for them. Himawari had ventured out into the land of grass to train, accompanied by Tokuma and Kokomaru. Tokuma was very pleased to have a new ninja hound to train and was very excited to begin training him. Himawari however began her own training session as she began most of them, by remembering.

 _Decades ago, in another war, shinobi fought against one another. One shinobi, a kunoichi, ran through the wilderness. On her sides were two fellow leaf ninja, also on the run.  
"Kushina! What are we going to do?! They are gaining on us!"  
"Just keep going! We are almost at the hidden leaf outpost!"  
"Ah!" One of Kushina's comrades was knocked down, Kushina turned to see what attacked him but couldn't see anything. She heard her other comrade also be knocked down, again unable to see the reason. Before she knew, Kushina herself was knocked down. This time, with all three on the ground she could finally see the cause, a large muscular dark skinned man encased in a lightning armour.  
"You… you're A. The third raikage's son."  
"Your hair, you are Kushina Uzumaki. I will be taking you back alive, this is an unexpected opportunity."  
"Just try it!" Kushina made a hand sign, summoning a series of chakra chains from her back and sent them rushing towards him. A used his immense reflexes to deflect the chains before using his speed to close the distance between them, he reached round to grab her.  
"Kushina!" One of her comrades watched helplessly, unable to follow his movements with his own eyes. _

_A looked between his arms, seining that Kushina had vanished. In the corner of his eye he caught something spinning, turning to examine it more closely.  
"Rasengan!" The spinning chakra orb dug into A's chakra armour, making its way through and damaging A's body. Kushina couldn't comprehend what had happened until she seen the unique three pointed kunai pierce the ground. It happened too fast for her to see it happen, but she was able to figure it out. In one move, Minato had teleported to her side, threw one of his kunai into the air above them and teleported out. After only a moment he teleported back and struck A with his rasengan. A got up, with only minimal damage thanks to his lightning style armour.  
"Minato Namikaze."  
"A." Minato quickly threw down a smoke bomb and threw two kunai, one directly behind the other in A's direction. As the first kunai neared its target Minato quickly teleported to it, rasengan in hand. A swung his hand round, using his lightning horizontal chop. In terms of pure movement speed, A was the faster of the two and his attack was on track to reach Minato before his rasengan was set to meet him. Just as his attack was about to reach Minato he teleported back to the second kunai, only a few inches behind him. This extra distance was enough to make A's attack just him, but small enough that A could not avoid the rasengan. Pressing the rasenagan into his chest, sending A flying forward.  
"Flying Raijin, level 2." _

"Wow… Grandpa was amazing!" Himawari marvelled, sitting on Kurama's head.  
"Yes, he was something." Kurama grunted. Himawari laughed.  
"Are you still pretending to hold a grudge for him sealing you? Kurama." Kurama simply grunted again in response, not wanting to entertain the child further. Himawari woke up from her day dream and found Sarada leaning against a tree, waiting on her.  
"Sarada, how long have you been waiting there? And should you even be out of bed?"  
"Just a few minutes, and I couldn't spend another two minutes in that room. I need to train, _we_ need to train."  
"Because the humanoid is coming for us?" Sarada nodded, taking a stance and throwing a punch towards Himawari.  
"Hey what are you doing?" Himawari jumped out of the way, watching the rock she was just leaning on shatter.  
"I told you, we need to train."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Himawari lamented, Sarada simply smiled before making a series of hand signs. Four large balls of fire erupted from her mouth and made their way towards Himawari, in response she entered her chakra mode and created two chakra tails, using them to deflect the attack. Himawari jumped towards Sarada who using her sharingan was able to avoid the taijutsu strikes. After swining a kick round, Himawari created another tail to swipe round at the same time. Not being able to follow the chakra tails with her sharingan Sarada was forced to create her Susano rib cage. Seeing this Himawari retreated to prepare her next move. Sarada threw a series of shuriken which Himawari but easily dodged. Using her new eternal mangekyou sharingan Sarada was able to redirect them back to Himawari from behind however against a byakguan user this was not as effective as one would assume. Sarada made a new series of hand signs.  
"Fire style: Magestic fire destroyer." Sarada released a large stream of flames, encompassing a very wide range. Seeing the range of this attack Himwari realised she wouldn't be able to dodge it and began spinning on the spot.  
"Rotation!" Using her nine tailed rotation she was able to protect herself from the flames. Despite her rotation, and the fire style chakra surrounding her she could clearly see the next attack coming with her byakgun. A large white rod sliced through the flames making its way towards Himawari. Not seeing another way out Himawari jumped into the air to avoid the attack. Himawari looked over towards Sarada to see her complete Susano wielding the large white rod. The Susano's free hand made its way to one of the hands above its shoulders, from the hand glowed a white orb from which a new white rod appeared. Sarada used it to swipe towards an airborne Himawari. Himawari stretched a chakra arm onto the ground and used it like a grapple to pull herself out of the way. Sarada was impressed by this innovation of the chakra arms and was visibly smiling at the sparring while across the field, an unknown figure watched on.

The sparring continued on for another hour, until Sarada's eyes eventually couldn't take the strain anymore. Upon this, Himawari carried her over to another rock, lying her down.  
"I know we were fighting, and kinda going all out. But that was fun right?" Himawari joked, passing bottle of water to her friend.  
"You know, you're right. I haven't cut loose like that in a long time, I haven't felt this good since…" Sarada blushed for a moment, but quickly tried to hide it realising what she was doing. She turned round to see Himawari looking very uncomfortable.  
"Sorry…" Sarada apologised as Himawari sat down next to her.  
"No, it's ok. It's nice that it's all out in the open at least."  
"Yeah. I guess it kinda is." Sarada took another drink of water and took in the moment, for the first time in a long time she felt completely comfortable around Himawari. She could hear the birds, and actually felt comfortable enough to watch the clouds pass her down.  
"Hey Himawari..uh?" Sarada turned to find Himawari fast asleep on her shoulder.  
"Like brother like sister huh."


	40. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"I can't believe you fell asleep on me." Sarada moaned, Himawari followed behind greatly embarrassed.  
"Come on Sarada, I was tired! I haven't really sparred with anyone since I became a jinchuriki!" She tried to defend herself, but Sarada simply laughed it off.  
"Yeah, and I have new eyes to try and adjust too."  
"You know, it's really weird seeing you without glasses." Sarada and Himawari continued walking through the base of the Kōyō in search of a meal following their training. They arrived outside Himawari's room when they were suddenly called upon.  
"Himawari, Sarada." They turned to see Jinsho standing alone.  
"Jinsho? What's wrong?"  
"I need to talk to the two of you alone, can we go to your office?" He said, more like whispered actually. Sarada nodded worryingly, signalling Himawari to follow.  
"But…but food…" Himawari lamented.

Himawari slurped on her instant ramen once in Sarada's office, having Sarada use her fire style chakra to heat it up. It wasn't just the three of them there, Tokuma, Inojin and Shikadai were also present. Despite the amount of company she was with, she was hungry enough that she didn't care.  
"You really are your father's daughter Himawari." Kurama grunted with annoyance, Himawari ignored him proceeding to eat her ramen. Jinsho also chose to ignore his colleague, beginning his meeting.  
"I am sorry to call you hear so suddenly, and so quietly."  
"I thought we agreed we weren't going to keep secrets anymore? After what happened with Mosaru…"  
Shikadai questioned.  
"You agreed, I was the holdout remember? Besides, I think this particular discussion is best kept in house."  
"And what exactly are we here to dicuss Jinsho?"

"It's been bothering me for a while, since the day you became a jinchuriki, Himawari." Jinsho said, bringing Himawari's attention away from her food.  
"We've never been attacked like that before. Not once in three years."  
"Yeah… a demon heard of that size… appearing from nowhere. It's unheard of, what of it?"  
"Wrong again Shikadai. It's not unheard of."  
"What are you talking about Jinsho?"  
"We've all seen or at least heard of that kind of attack before, that kind of _summoning_."  
"What are you implying Jinsho?..." Sarada grew worried.  
"Every attack we have endured in the last year pushed us in the same direction, towards the sea. Towards the Yoake. And once we eventually crossed paths with them, nothing. No demon attack the entire time. And then there is what the Yoake told Himawari."  
"That the humanoid is coming for us?" Himawari spoke up.  
"More specifically, that the humanoid is coming for…"  
"The leadership keys." Sarada cut Jinsho off, eventually coming to his conclusion.  
"Could someone clue me in?" Himawari asked.

"Jinsho thinks there is a humanoid spy among us."  
"What?! Are you for real?!" Himawari shot up, greatly shocked.  
"I'm not sure, but what you're saying makes sense." Shikadai commented, turning to Jinsho.  
"I'm sure, one hundred percent." Jinsho said.  
"Despite the fact that the enemy has warriors capable of defeating all the five kage including Lord Seventh and Lord Sasuke. Somehow we have survived for three years. And every attack we have received has pushed us and the Yoake together. And not attacking us during that time, if they had spies in both the Kōyō and Yoake they likely knew of Seph's plans and intended to watch the conflict from a far."  
"You think the fact we are alive is a big game to them?" Himawari asked.  
"Perhaps they were curious about our survival methods, how we would cope in such a world." Tokuma  
commented.  
"There is one more thing, like I said that particular attack was of a different magnitude. And we didn't receive anything like that afterwards, with the only major change being…"  
"I became a jinchuriki…"  
"Yes, and think about it. Other than Kurama, we have not encountered any of the tailed beasts. Perhaps they were trying to force Kurama to reveal the jinchuriki process so they can use the other tailed beasts as weapons."  
"Jinsho… assuming you're correct. Do you have a method for finding this spy?"  
"Unfortunately no, Kurama said himself that the ones from the kage summit didn't use chakra in their fighting. So if there is a spy, it's possible they have managed to create an artificial chakra signature, so the chakra of the spy might not fluctuate like ours does when we lie which only leaves the byakugan to observe the heart rate. But…"  
"Doing that to the entire Kōyō will alert the spy to our suspicion, and could cause a panic." Sarada concluded.  
"Agreed, I think its best we each keep our eyes open for potential suspects. And it's best we don't trust anyone outside of this room."  
"We are going to take some steps to defend ourselves, if they are truly coming for us there is no point in running. Jinsho, Shikadai. I want the two of you to work together with some of our earth style users, I want the trenches and traps set out further than our usual radius. Himawari, Inojin, Tokuma I want two reconnaissance scouts a day. If it's coming for us, I want to find it before it finds us."  
"Who should we take as our fourth?" Inojin asked.  
"Keep it rotating, if we have a spy its best we don't give anyone out of this room too much responsibility." Jinsho spoke out before Sarada could answer, much to Inojin's annoyance but Sarada nodded in agreement.

"Well… that was depressing." Himawari moaned, leaving the room with Sarada.  
"I know, but he wasn't wrong. Himawari, if Jinsho's theory is correct then they are probably after you for being a jinchuriki."  
"I can handle myself." Sarada reached down and grabbed Himawari's hand.  
"I can't lose you too." Himawari squeezed her hand back, fairly confident that everything would be ok for the two of them.  
"You won't, I promise. I never go back on my…"  
"Don't say it."  
Himawari was taken aback by the sadness in Sarada's voice, the words she was about to say. It was the ninja way of her family, and from what she could now gather: Boruto's last words to Sarada.  
"Sarada… I'm sorry. Um, I have to go. I have some stuff to do before we leave for the scout."  
"Are you going to see Shota?"  
"WHAT?! No?!"

A few short hours later, Himawari had left with her scouting team along with two additions, Kokomaru and  
Tarui.  
"Are you sure it was a good idea to bring the dog? I mean how much training has it had?" Inojin questioned, worried about the safety of the mission. Before Tokuma could reply Kokomaru barked in Inojins direction.  
"Well, it looks like you have you answer Inojin," Himawari laughed. It wasn't long before the scouting party found something worth investigating. In their search they had crossed the border of the village hidden in the grass and made their way into what was once the village hidden in the rain. Which was what struck them as odd, as the small encampment they found had buildings which clearly possessed architecture from the village hidden in the sand.  
"Could this be a surviving settlement of sand ninja?" Tarui asked.  
"It can't be…"  
"Why is that?"  
"The hidden sand was the first place we went… well. The first place we wanted to go. But my aunt Hanabi  
returned from one of the first scouts and she said that the hidden sand had been reduced to a crater in the ground. The whole village was just… gone."

"Who goes there?!" One ninja came out from behind one of the buildings, dressed like a sand ninja.  
"It's ok. We are friendly, we are survivors of the hidden leaf." Inojin raised his hands, but the ninja didn't seem to notice.  
"Leave this place, now."  
"Look, we can help you. Our camp is only a day's walk from here." Tokuma replied, but instead of more  
conversation the sand ninja lept at him and more followed from behind the other buildings.


	41. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

The scouting part scattered to avoid the rush of sand ninja approaching them. One of the sand ninja made a  
series of hand signs before releasing several slicing wind waves towards all the members of the scouts. In  
reaction to this Himawari created four chakra tails to defend all of them including her. Despite now being in her chakra mode the sand ninja didn't seem to be surprised by it at all. More and more ninja appeared, ready to fight.  
"Listen to us, we aren't your enemies" Inojin mumbled between blocking attacks, he received no response. Eventually he jumped into the air after creating his ink wings.

"Guys, let's get out of here." Inojin opened a scroll, three ink birds flying out of it. Tokuma, Kokomaru and  
Tarui quickly leapt on.  
"We are leaving?!" Himawari asked, shocked.  
"We don't want to fight them, I've got an idea." Inojin explained, with this Himawari agreed and leapt onto the ink bird. As they flew away, all the sand ninja turned to face a slow walking figure coming from the back of their small compound, a figure wearing white robes and a white and green hat.

"Surviving sand ninja?! Are you serious?" Sarada asked the now returned group of ninja.  
"Yeah, I can't believe it either."  
"I was on that scout with Hanabi, the hidden sand… it was just gone. I know the hidden leaf was…." Flashes of that day rang through Sarada's mind again, the image of the crumbling stone faces. The screeching sound drowned out every thought in her mind. The sound caused her to lose balance, she was falling to the ground when Himawari grabbed her. Her breathing began to slow down, looking at Himawari she nodded to let her go.  
"You ok?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine. So why did you come straight back?" Inojin didn't immediately answer, he just turned to look at Shikadai.  
"Good idea, if we are truly going to make a stand here it makes sense to have allies nearby. Up until now we assumed Shikadai was the closest thing to a hidden sand citizen still alive. With your ties to the Kazekage clan, you could probably get through to them."  
"Heh that almost sounds like a compliment Jinsho. I didn't think you could do that." Shikadai joked. Jinsho didn't reply, he seemed to let the comment pass him by.

"How much time did you spend in the hidden sand?" Sarada asked him.  
"My mum and dad would take me every time the five kage summit was hosted by the hidden sand."  
"Excellent, you should take Chocho as well, you guys haven't been on a mission together since we found her." Sarada ordered, leaving the room signalling Jinsho to follow her.  
"You placed insects on Inojin, didn't you?"  
"You noticed?"  
"No, I just know you well enough at this point."  
"Hm, you going to ask me to take them off?"  
"If I did, would you?"  
"I'd tell you I was."  
"Hm, how long have you suspected him?"  
"Since the beginning, even before we lost Boruto. Inojin's super beast scrolls have been our main mode of transportation. He has had complete control over our movements since day one. He could have lead our byakugan users to something he wanted us to find."  
"Why include him in the discussion about the spy?"  
"He's more likely to slip up if he thinks he is safe."

"We told you to leave." One of the sand ninja barked, pointing his weapon at the new group of scouts. Shikadai walked ahead of his comrades holding his arms above his head.  
"My name is Shikadai Nara, my mother was Temari of the Kazekage clan, sister to the fifth Kazekage and daughter of the fourth."  
"Kaze…kage?" One of them asked, awkwardly.  
"Yes, I would like to speak to your leader." The sand ninja all stared at him, none moving to look at each other or the other members of the scouts. After a few minutes silence he turned away from Shikadai.  
"Come. See. Kazekage." Shikadai turned to his friends before following the sand ninja but as the other moved all the sand ninja moved in perfect unison to stop them.  
"Not you. Only him." One spoke out. Shikdai nodded to them, confirming to go along with what they wanted. Shikadai followed the sand ninja, but something about the whole encampment made him feel uncomfortable, the way all the ninja and citizens seemed to turn to look at him in sync and how robotic their movements were. Then there was the silence. No one was speaking. He would have expected them to be whispering and gossiping about an outsider, especially since their guards were so anxious to keep people out.

"Man… what did these guys see that day to make them so…robotic?" Eventually they came to a small round building in the centre of the encampment.  
"What's in here?" Shikadai asked.  
"Kazekage." The doors opened merely at the word, revealing a near empty room with only one chair placed  
exactly in the centre of the room and seated on that chair was some dressed as the kazekage. Shikadai couldn't see the man's face from underneath the hat.  
"Hello, I am Shikadai Nara."  
"Shikadai?!" The man stood up, his hat falling off of his head.  
"Kanzuku?!" Shikdai recognised the man near instantly, Kanzuku was one of the head puppeteers from the  
village hidden in the sand. He also founded the advanced puppet engineering team, Shikadai had met him on many trips to the hidden sand.  
"I… I didn't think anyone survived in the hidden sand… some of us seen what happened there."  
"Not many did, I have been working hard here to rebuild the hidden sand."  
"So I see, the hidden leaf has survived in the form of a roaming faction. Tell me, how you have been able to hold this fort?"  
"What do you mean?  
"Well, with this many people here… surely you have had many demons attack the area?"  
"No, we have had very little incidents here."  
"That doesn't make any sense."

"So… hidden sand exclusive party right." Chocho whined, sitting next to Himawari on the ground as Inojin paced waiting on Shikadai returning. Every time Inojin turned to change direction he could see the sand ninja staring at him, with no noticeably feelings at all. For some reason, he began to notice more of them coming to their area and it made him uncomfortable.  
"Guys… I think we might need to get ready to get out of here." He told his female friends, gaining both of their attentions. For a moment at least.  
"Hey… hold on…" Chocho got up, looking at one of the sand ninja.  
"Yeah it's Jay!" She said, pointing at him.  
"Jay?"  
"Yeah! He was one of our scouts, he went missing about a year ago. These guys must have taken him in."  
Inojin didn't like this, it didn't add up. They were attacked immediately the last time, it didn't make sense that they would welcome a hidden cloud ninja. The hidden leaf were incredibly close, in fact the hidden cloud was probably the least close to the hidden sand.  
"Jay! Jay it's me! Chocho!" Jay didn't respond to her, he just continued to stare in her general direction. Not really looking at her.

"Jay! Jay it's me! Chocho!" Shikadai heard his friend's voice echoing throughout the chamber, he turned on the spot, unsure as to what was going on. Directly behind him, there were dozens of television monitors scattered across that part of the dome.  
"Wait… you didn't." Shikadai turned back to Kanzuku, whose arm was outstretched and pointing at Shikadai.  
"Must…rebuild…the sand." His hand opened and slide down onto his forearm and chakra began to swirl in the hole left in its place. Jay swung his arm round at Chocho who dived out of the way, falling to the ground. Bringing his arm up a blade came out from between his knuckles which he brought down to slash Chocho.  
Inojin jumped in-between them, defending her with his ink blades. The chakra cannon built into Kanzuku's arm blasted a rush of wind chakra into Shikadai, pushing him back into the street. A group of ninja began gathering around him and that's when he figured it out.  
"All these ninja… they are puppets."


	42. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

One of the 'ninja' next to Jay made a hand sign before breathing a rushing stream of water, followed by Jay who enhanced the water style attack with his lightning style chakra. Himawari jumped in front of her comrades and used the air palm technique to deflect the water.  
"What's going on? Why are they attacking us?!"  
"That's not your friend Chocho, at least anymore. They are all puppets." Himawari commented, now with her byakugan active.  
"Since when can puppets use ninjustu?!" Inojin moaned.  
"You guys go get Shikadai, I'll handle these ones."  
"Himawari, are you sure? Your gentle fist won't work on puppets."  
"Hey, I don't just have the gentle fist. I have Kurama with me, go!" Himawai entered her chakra mode and jumped into the crowd of puppets apposing them. Himawari outstretched multiple chakra arms from various points on her body, using them to grab onto as many puppets as she could.  
"Rotation!" Spinning on the spot she pulled the puppets off of the ground and throwing them into the air, breaking several of them as they hit the ground of the walls of nearby buildings.

"Inojin, can you sense Shikadai?"  
"Yeah follow me." Shikadai ran from several of the puppets, all attacking him with various wind style attacks.  
"These aren't just puppets… they are human puppets." Shikadai turned, throwing several paper bombs towards the puppets, which they quickly deflected. The explosions hid Shikadai from view for a moment, using the smoke generated he lengthened his shadow and caught all the puppets. He switched to his shadow stitching jutsu and combining it with his shadow grab jutsu, pulling several puppets apart. Above him, two puppets that had wings built in flew above him, pointing down chakra canons. Inojin flew up towards them, slicing their wings. As they fell to the ground, an enlarged Chocho smashed both of them into the ground.  
"Shikadai, what's going on?!" His two comrades ran down to his side.  
"The only sand ninja here, is named Kanzuku. He is a puppeteer, he developed a method years ago for an automated puppet security system. He got the idea from inspecting the puppet body of Sasori of the red sand, who was able to control up to two hundred puppets without even moving. He created a device that when surgically grafted onto the spin could mimic the results. He sought to combine this with other modern technology so a single ninja could defend one place with an army of puppets. My uncles repeatedly shut the project down because it would be too dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands."  
"But puppets still shouldn't be able to use ninjutsu!"  
"They are called human puppets, another advancement made by Sasori of the red sand. It allows puppets to retain any ability they had in life. Sasori's body was a human puppet itself, he probably figured out the process from inspecting it."

"Alright then, what's the plan?" Inojin asked, Shikadai looked directly up into the sky. The clouds were on verge of covering the sun, he wouldn't be able to use his shadows for much longer.  
"Chocho, do you remember formation E?" Chocho nodded, much to Inojin and Shikadais join.  
"Time to see if we can still use our Ino-Shika-Cho combinations." Inojin created one of his ink birds, carrying Chocho high up into the air. With her byakugan, Himawari could see her friends flying into the air but she was unsure what they were up to.  
"Himawari, get indoors when you see the signal!" Inojin's voice echoed in her mind. She looked up, watching her friends closer now.  
"Alright, this should be high enough Chocho…" Chocho jumped off of the bird making a hand sign. Inojin made a hand sign of his own.  
"Mind Transmission Jutsu. Shikadai, Chocho… Now!"  
"Shadow possession jutsu!"  
"Super expansion jutsu!" Shikdai's shadow joined onto Chocho's just before she expanded massively, seeing her grow Himawari took that as the needed signal and used her speed to rush in doors. With her expansion and altitude her shadow grew and covered the entire area. With his shadow now connection to all the puppets Shikadai changed his hand signs. Using the mental link Inojin had set up for them, Chocho was able to time her shrinking perfectly with Shikadai's change to the shadow pull jutsu. All the puppets were pulled from where they stood and flung to the same point in the sky, forming a small ball of puppets. Falling down Chocho used her expansion jutsu again, followed by more hand signs.  
"Lightning style: thunder clap!" She slammed one of her enlarged lightning imbued palms into the puppet ball, smashing all the puppets into pieces into a single move.

"Hey guys, that was amazing!" Himawari ran up, back in her normal form.  
"Now all that remains… is him." Shikadai turned back, looking at the small spherical like building housing the 'kazekage'. Himawari turned and used her air palm technique, blowing the doors off of their hinges. Kanzuku stared out at them, and without a word some wooden constructs came from the ground and wrapped themselves around the scouts.  
"What is this?! Is this…wood style?!"  
"No, look closer, it is more puppet parts, this is how he was able to control those puppets while still in that building." Shikadai explained.  
"You… destroyed the sand…. I will… rebuild again." Kanzuku mumbled quietly, bringing up his other arm, it opened in a similar manner to his first arm but this one had a series of blades inside.  
"Himawari?!" Inojin paniced.  
"I can't… I can't enter my chakra mode."  
"He's absorbing our chakra Himawari… preventing you from entering chakra mode!" Kurama explained to his jinchuriki.  
"He's…. absorbing our chakra!" Himawari explained to her comrades.  
"What are we going to do?!"

"AH!" Kanzuku buckled over, gripping his chest. Suddenly the wooden puppet parts fell off of the squad. They looked at each other in confusion, expecting one of them to own up to saving them which no one did.  
"Himawari, can you look at him? See what happened?" Shikadai asked. Himawari nodded, activating her byakugan.  
"What the…. It's some of Jinsho's insects! They have entered his heart."  
"Jinsho's insects?" The others asked with confusion.  
"Forget that for now! We need to end this!" Shikadai commanded, taking a kunai and running towards  
Kanzuku. Inojin quickly pulled out one of his ink blades and joined his comrade. Kanzuku lifted his chakra canon, firing off several large bursts of chakra. Himawari let loose several air palms, deflecting the chakra blasts. Unable to do anything, Kanzuku felt Shikadai's kunai pierce his heart.  
"Go, Kanzuku. Join the sand, in your final rest." Shikadai whispered to him, with pain in his voice.

"So… all this time. He had been creating human puppets from corpses, and using them to rebuilt the hidden sand village?"  
"Yeah, he probably had some kind of PDST from whatever he saw that day, he probably wasn't even fully aware of what he was really doing." Inojin explained, having some knowledge of mental conditions.  
"Shikadai, can we talk alone for a minute?" He went on to ask, Himawari and Chocho soon walked away.  
"You know Jinsho suspects one of us to be the spy right?"  
"Obviously. But don't think about doing anything about it, Inojin."  
"What? Why not?!"  
"If you do, you'll just make things worse. Its best you let him do what he's going to do and let him come to his own conclusion. You won't be able to make Jinsho change his mind with words."

"It's a shame that the hidden sand survivors turned out to be nothing, it would have been good to find some  
allies." Jinsho commented, his insects had reported to him that some of them were forced to intervene in the battle, but he acted like Inojin was still unaware of his monitoring.  
"What now?" Himawari asked.  
"Take a few hours off, then start a new scout in the opposite direction."


	43. Chapter 34

A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated in so long. It has been a busy year for me and a lot has happened, but I have been working slowly on this story. I have skipped a bit of planned filler and I am uploading two chapters at once today. I hope you enjoy. Chapter 34

"Hey Himawari!" Shota ran up to her, seemingly nervous and somewhat excited.  
"Hey Shota, where have you been?"  
"Oh you know, helping out here and there. I did some work on the trenches out on the outskirts, and well… I found this underground." He reached into one of his pockets, taking something out but for now it was hidden by his hand. He turned away before opening his hand, revealing a small stone pendant on a piece of string.  
"Wait, is this for me?" Himawari blushed, taking the pendant from him. Shota nodded weakly before Himawari put it around her neck.  
"Thank you." The two stood in silence for a moment, which neither seemed to mind.  
"Hey Himawari! Shota!" Inojin ran up to the two younger ninja.  
"Inojin, Hey. Are we ready to go?"  
"Going on another scout?" Shota asked, to which Himawari nodded.  
"About that, Shota. Would you mind accompanying us? Tarui is sitting this one out." Shota turned to Himawari, as if asking for her permission. She didn't answer at first, she thought it might be weird having him with her but they did need a fourth man… it would be too risky otherwise.  
"Yeah, come on Shota."

In an hour's time the new scouting team left the safety of their home and into the world. Following the events at the 'new hidden sand' the Kōyō were in dire need of a win, or at the very least some real hope. Himawari herself felt very hopeful, nervously so. She didn't completely understand it, but having Shota with them was incredibly distracting for her. Even though she was looking miles into the distance her mind was on the ink bird mere meters away from her. Kurama was deeply amused at the nervousness of his Jinchuriki, as well as somewhat proud that she was handling her first crush much better than both of her parents, even if he was wary of the boy. Not that he would ever admit it, Himawari was something of a surrogate daughter to him.  
"Inojin, there's something at ten ocklock, about 12 miles out." Following her instruction, Inojin redirected his ink birds, taking them to a ravine. Scattered around it, were bodies, Shinobi bodies. The team lowered down to inspect further. The bodies didn't have any 'normal wounds', they all had fairly large holes in their chests, with dried blood surrounding the exits. Before they could begin discussing the matter it became really obvious just where it was these wounds came from.

A demon burst out from beneath the ground, screeching as it done so. The shinobi noted the demon to be unusual, although at one point all kinds of demon were unusual to them. It was flesh, but parts of its skin had black steel patches across it. The demon swung its arms around, pushing the rocks around with the force of the air. There was another thing they noticed about it, something they had seen before. This demon, had no eyes. Like the one that nearly killed Himawari, the one Seph Yuki described to Sarada. The ones with special abilities.  
"It's an enhanced demon…" Himawari entered her chakra mode upon noticing this. The demon screamed again, at an incredibly high frequency sending shock waves towards them. The shock wave blew the team apart, separating them and destroying the ink birds. Himawari entered her chakra mode and used her chakra arms to grab onto one of the cliff faces. Inojin made a hand sign, sprouting his ink wings he flew towards Tokuma, grabbing him. The demon launched a second attack at them, Himawari leapt into the air and countered the attack with her air palm technique. Landing on the ground she took a stance and activated her byakugan.

Once activated, Himawari noticed that she couldn't see Shota nearby.  
"Inojin! Tokuma! Go find Shota, I got this." Himawari ran towards the demon, but it started screaming, loud enough that Himawari had to stop, covering her ears. Unable to move, Himawari created a chakra arm to attack the demon but it dodged and fired off a sonic blast. Himawari wrapped herself in her chakra tails but the blast was still strong enough to send her flying. Himawari burst out of the rocks she was flung into and launched several air palms in quick succession but the demon countered it with its sonic blasts. Himawari grew frustrated, manifesting hands at the ends of each tail she grabbed and threw boulders at the demon. Unable to respond fast enough following the previous attack the demon was struck, Himawari took the opportunity to rush in and strike with several gentle fish attacks.

The demon screamed in pain, the scream however was painfully loud. Himawari was close enough that she could feel her body to begin resonating with the sound. In pain her body was unable to maintain its charka cloak. Unable to move, Himawari was struck across the cavern by an arm strike from the demon. Himawari shouted out in pain, her arm broken. Himawari was soon met with a series of sonic blasts, pinned down by them. As the demon prepared another sonic blast, Shota jumped down in front of it with a knife in each hand. He thrust both knives forwards, stabbing the in each arm. Himawari took the opening, re-entering her chakra mode she dashed forward and struck the demon in the chest. After the demon recoiled back, Himawari formed Kurama's head around her body.  
"Tailed beast bomb!" The fox shot out a condensed chakra sphere into the demon, sending it flying into the distance before exploding, presumably killing it.

Exhausted Himawari's chakra cloak faded again but she quickly turned to Shota and wrapped her arms around him.  
"You're ok! I couldn't see what happened when the demon struck… and you saved me! Thank you Shota!"  
"Eh… thanks…Himawari." He said blushing, slowly hugging her back. Himawari suddenly realised what she was doing and jumped away from him embarresed. Blushing herself, she just looked at him for a moment. Eventually she closed the distance, slowly pressing her lips against his.  
"Come on… we should go find the others." She turned away, mainly to hide her embarrassment, and Shota soon followed.


	44. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Several hours later, back at camp.

"An enhanced demon? Do you think the humanoid could have sent it ahead of it?" Shikadai asked his comrades.  
"It's possible, we don't even know if Himawari successfully defeated that enhanced, Sarada… are you sure you don't want to leave this base?" Inojin questioned nervously.  
"If the Yoake Intel is accurate, the humanoid will just chase us for our leadership keys. We need to take a stand-" She said confidently.  
"Shota." Jinsho spoke out, interrupting Sarada. Shota seemed shocked, simply nodding to acknowledge his request.  
"What happened to you? You mentioned that you were separated from the rest of the group?"  
"Oh… em, I was hit by the demons sonic attack and…."  
"You were hit?"  
"I mean, it blew me away a distance from the group."  
"Jinsho! Is this relevant?" Sarada barked at him.  
"More than." Jinsho spoke seriously.

"Himawari, use your byakugan on him. And Shota, repeat what you just said." From that, everyone around them knew what he was asking. There was an awkward silence in the room, Himawari looked at Shota and back to Jinsho slowly.  
"Jinsho, Shota saved my life from that thing. He can't be the one."  
"If I'm right, he could have summoned that demon himself in order to put himself above suspicion." Jinsho didn't waver, even bringing out a number of his insects. Himawari took a stance in front of Shota, prepared to defend.  
"You paranoid weirdo… is there anyone you don't suspect?!" She snapped.  
"If you are going to use your byakugan to fight me, you might as well look at your friend there first." Himawari growled in response.  
"What are you guys talking about?!" Shota asked confused.  
"Jinsho…. Where is this coming from?" Shikadai questioned.  
"I don't like it when people get the details wrong in their own story… and then there is what happened when Shota here was working on the trenches."  
"When I was working on the trenches….?"  
"Tell me Shota, why is it you were able to use Earth style… without moulding any earth style chakra?!" Jinsho shouted, shocking everyone.

Suddenly, the expression on Shota's face changed. Instantly from panic to a frightening calm.  
"Damn, I thought using my matter mystic would be indistinguishable from your shinobi earth style." Inojin pulled his blades from his forearms and leapt at Shota. Shota ducked underneath the attack when Sarada entered the battle. She charged her fist at Shota but he was able to dodge. Sarada's strength destroyed the wall of her office, leading to the outside. Shota took the opportunity and dived out the hole in the wall and everyone followed. Several ninja outside the office heard the commotion and followed after them, among this group being Chocho.  
"Shota… you…you're the humanoid spy?" Himawari pleaded to her friend.  
"Humanoid spy?!" One of the ninja who arrived with Chocho questioned.  
"Kosen, is the term actually. Humanoid sounds silly. And technically no, Shota isn't. Shortly after our invasion we captured Shota, and I stole his body to infiltrate this faction of survivers. Unfortunatley, my ability to control Shota's chakra is limited. I planned on using the trench digging as an opportunity to further some of my plans I had to rely on my own abilities. I didn't know your insects would be able to pick that up from the distance you were at, Jinsho Aburame."  
"Hm, they can't. I merely lied to convince Himawari to insepct you, which turned out not to be nessacery." Jinsho replied, with a small smirk on his face.

"I should have seen that coming, you truly are impressive. Jinsho Aburame."  
"Enough! Who are you?!" Sarada barked, activating her mangekyou sharingan.  
"Hm, my real name is… Zembala Cretzch."  
"UH!" Kurama shot up within Himawari. Growling with rage/  
"Kurama… whats wrong?"  
"That name… it's him… He's the one… the one who killed Naruto." Kurama spoke with rage flooding his voice. Himawari began to shake, unable to take her eyes off of Shota's form. Specially his lips. Zembala began to laugh, his laughter intensifying the more Himawari's thoughts spun out of control as if he could read her mind.

 _"Hey Hima! Hows my favoutire girl?" His voice echoed.  
_ "HAHAHAHAH!"  
 _"Hey Himawari… don't cry. Daddy is always going to be here for you…"  
_ "HAHAHAHAH!"  
"Whats so funny?!" Sarada roared.  
She could still taste his lips on hers and everytime she did her fathers voice ran through her mind. Himawari began to cry, throwing up as she did so.  
"Himawari?! What did you do?!"  
"Nothing, well, except kill her father." He mocked. Everyone recoiled in horror. But Himawari forced herself to her feet, Kuramas chakra rushing out from her.  
"DIE!" She shot forward, her hand over flowing with chakra aiming for Zembalas heart.

Zembala reached his hand out, and a pentagram appeared within it. Suddenly Himawari fell to the ground unconscious. "Himawari! Shikadai, Chocho!" Inojin rushed forward again, as he did so Shikadai reached his shadow out to join his. Zemabala clapped his hands, some of the ground reached up while glowing red. This ground turned into a long sword, which he used to fight off Inojin's attacks.  
"Hm, these attacks are a rouse, what I have to watch is his shadow. If it crosses mine, I will be caught in Shikadais technique. But that's not all is it… Chocho." Zembala looked over his shoulder to see Chocho, using a hand sign she suddenly increased in size.  
"Inojin's purpose is just to lead me towards you isn't it…." Zembala suddenly froze on the spot. "Now I see, I thought Chocho was meant to strike me while Inojin and Shikadai distracted me. But the purpose In Chocho's technique is to overlap my shadow and Inojins with hers."  
"Now Sarada!" Shikadai shouted, as Sarada brough the fists of her Susano down onto Zembala's body repeatedly. The ground around them crushed to pieces by its immense strength, now that she knew that this Kosen was the one to kill Naruto, she had no intention of giving it an opportunity to fight back.

"Tokuma, take Himawari to Iona. Now" She said once she finished pounding into Zembala.  
"I don't think so." Zemabla spoke up, much to Sarada's surpise. Zembala's body, despite being mangled and crushed began to stand up. Under the same red glow that was present when he formed his weapon his flesh began to heal itself. As he stood, the sound of growing flesh was drowned out as the dislocated and broken bones realined themselves.  
"What…. What are you?"  
"Hm, I am your end." He bit into his thumb.  
"Stop him!"  
"Summoning Jutsu!" Zembala summoned a massive hoard of demons, using the cover of smoke Zembala rushed forward and picked up Himawari. With her in hand he made his way onto a flying demon.  
"This is not how I wanted this go everyone, I was hoping to observe you all for some time to come. Believe me when I tell you, I hope you survive, Sarada Uchiha. I will be coming back for your eyes." He mocked as he flew off.

Several miles out, Himawari woke up dazed. Realising where she was she fought her way out of Zembala's arm and made her way onto the ground. Entering tailed beast mode she prepared a tailed beast bomb to strike him with, but she was paralised and found herself in her base form again.  
"Foolish girl, didn't you realise." Zembala made his way to the ground.  
"I manipulated Shota into giving you that necklace, to serve as a catalyst for some of my more complex spells." Himawari growled at him.  
"You son of a… I am going to kill you!"  
"Oh Himawari… is that anyway to speak to your first kiss?" He mocked, further enraging her he reached a hand out to touch her face.  
"Now come on, my friends are waiting on us."

Suddenly, a form fell down from the sky sword in hand and cut off Zembala's hand. Himawari quickly recgonsided the individual, even with his back to her. Long cloak, white helmet acting as a mask. The humanoid that killed Boruto. But, why was he here, and fighting Zembala? Zembala seemed more shocked by his presence than she did.  
"You…. Hehe" He stood back up as his arm regenerated.  
"When that Yoake ninja told us about an approaching Humandoid I had no idea what he was talking about. Admittedly though, I would have never figured it was actually you hiding behind a mask…." From the front, Zembala could see clearly the deisgn of his mask. It had a sharingan painted on it, with the pupil of the sharingan acting as the singular eye hole of the mask, showing clearly the left eye of the man underneath. A purple eye with a ripple like pattern.  
"… Sasuke Uchiha."


	45. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Himawari could only stare at him. The paralysis she was caught in was preventing her from using her byakugan, she was dying to look behind his mask. Everything she could see reminded her of him though. His stance, the way he held his sword. The way his cloak blew in the wind. Even though she couldn't really see him, she actually believed this was Sasuke Uchiha. Her fathers only rival, Sarada's father. If anyone could survive the invasion, it would have been him.  
"What is with the mask? Sasuke." Zembala mocked.  
"Hm, during a battle against one of your comrades I was left scarred. Not that it helped him." Sasuke retorted, Zembala only laughed in response. Hearing his voice Himawari felt a wave of comfort rise up in her, despite not being able to move properly she felt completely safe.  
"Unlce Sasuke! It's him! He is the one who killed my Dad! Kurama told me!" She shouted to him. Sasuke's rinnegan widened, his grip on his sword tighented.  
"So, he's the one…." He brought his sword up in front of him, Zembala reacted creating another pentagram.

Another burst of energy wrapped round Himawari, knocking her unconscious, before her body fell to the ground however Sasuke's sword swung back and cut the pendant off from around her neck. Zembala clapped his hands, creating another weapon from the ground.  
"That was close…. If I had misinterpreted his intent just now, I would be facing him and Himawari alone… in my current condition…." Zembala's compusre seemed to shift, he seemed less comfortable with the prospect of fighting Sasuke all of a sudden.  
"I am surprised that you formed that weapon, taking me on, without your full power? You are brave, even for a Kosen."  
"What?! How does…. How does he know that I don't have my power stone...? This is bad, I was betting on wearing him down but if he knows I don't have my powers… My best bet is to escape with Himawari now. But even that won't be easy." Zembala slammed his hand onto the ground, the ground began to move, spikes coming up from below Sasuke. Sasuke dogded and approached Zembala, swinging his sword. Zembala parried, but his every counterattack was seen through by Sasuke.

Zembala again placed his hands on the ground, and a flurrly of stone hands rose from it to attack Sasuke. Sasuke was able to dodge every one of them but they pished him into the air. Once far above the ground, Sasuke threw his sword down towards Zembala. Zembala moved his head slightly to the side, dodging the sword flying towards it. Zembala brought his sword infront of him and began spinning round behind him.  
"If our intel is correct, this is one of your favourite moves Uchiha, throwing your sword only to teleport to-" Zembala began thinking but was cut off by a stabbing pain in his back, after throwing the sword Sasuke had somehow propelled himself down towards the ground. Bringing a kunai he dug it into Zembala's back before jumping over him and grabbing his sword. As Zembala rose back up, Sasuke kicked him in the chest, sending him backwards. Making a single hand sign, Sasuke detonated the paper bombs attached to the knife.

Despite having be blown apart, Zembala's body began to re-construct itself.  
"This isn't good… He hasn't actually used any chakra yet. He mislead me with that sword trick." Zembala looked over his shoulder, Himawari was still lying on the ground behind him. Zembala discared his sword, bringing his hands infront of him. He brought them together, clapping as he done so. He then sent a wave of fire towards Sasuke, who without moving seemed to disperse the flames. With a second action, Zembala summoned a sheet of ice which caught Sasuke's right arm. Zembala turned round and made his way towards Himawari, pressing his hands to the ground a circle carved itself into the ground with Himawari and Zembala in the centre. Both of them were inlufed in a red energy similar to the one Zembala had been using previously.  
"You were right Sasuke Uchiha, taking you on in my current condition wouldn't even be amusing. Don't worry, once I have my power stone we'll have ourselves a re-match. But now that I have this girl, the last Jinchuriiki, we kosen will soon have all the tailed beasts under our control." Zembala laughed as parts of his body began to disentergrate.

"Universal pull." Sasuke spoke calmly, the red energy engulfing Zembala and Himawari disappated, the technique ending.  
"What?!" Zembala suddenly found himself floating inches off the ground and moving towards Sasuke.  
"Now I see… he wanted me to try and transport me and Himawari… he…he knew that doing so would drain my life stone to the point he could kill me…" Zembala flew towards Sasuke when he saw something else, movement under Sasukes cloak. His left arm rose out, bringing it behind him.  
"What?! A left arm?! You aren't Sasuke Uchiha?!" Zembala began to panick, more so as he saw the chakra gathering in the masked ninja's hand. It was spinning, in all directions but was somhow contained within his palm. More accurately it seemed to be contained in a sphere in his hand.  
"That technique! That's…. Who are you?!" Zembala shouted as the ball of chakra was pressed into his chest. As the rotating sphere dug into him Zembala roared in pain but rather than bleeding as he did prior his body decayed into dust, blowing away in the wind.

The masked ninja brought his left arm up to the ice it was encased in, and created a small flame in his hands freeing him. He slowly walked over to Himawari and stared down at her for a moment. He reached down with one hand, touching her hair.  
"Himawari…."

Back outside the embassy a group of the ninja still there fought back against the demons that Zembala had left for them. Some of Sarada's earth style users had created a wall between the combat and the embassy in order to protect those who couldn't fight. Sarada soon realised that something about these demons wasn't right. No matter how hard they hit them they kept getting back up, even with her strength or even Chocho's enlarged strikes. They kept getting back up. They roared, and began regrouping infront of them. But they weren't only regrouping. They were melting into a black liquid and mixing together. Once they all formed a massive pool it turned back into a large singular metal skin, with no eyes.  
"Another enhanced?! Chocho!" Sarada summoned her Susano and at her order Chocho enlarged herself fully. Sarada pushed her Susano further than she had done before, creating a full body including legs.

Sarada created two white spears and launched them into the demon with little effect. Chocho then dived forward, making a number of handsigns.  
"Lightning style: Pulse punch!" A ball of lighting covered Chocho's fist, as she punched the massive demon a beam of lightning burst through it. Similar to Sarada's spear the attack fased right through it. After taking the hit the demon revered back to its liquid form. Rushing past both Chocho and Sarada's Susano it rose up again to go over the wall. Sarada screamed, running back to try and do something. With her sharingan she seen something, someone jumped down from the sky between the wall and the wave.  
"Almighty push!" Some kind of invisible force pushed the wave back away from the wall.  
"A white helmet and cloak… that's the masked humanoid. But why did it do that…" Inojin watched from below as the masked figure fell down next to him. Behind the wall, another masked figure landed on the ground, identical to the other one. This one was carrying Himawari in his arms. He walked over to Iona who stood with a knife in her hand, with Tokuma by her side doing the same.  
"Iona, take care of her." He said to her, before jumping off again towards the wall.  
"Tokuma… that voice… was that?"  
"Yeah… and that scent. No doubt about it."

Back at the front line, the masked ninja reached both his hands out.  
"Universal pull." Using this technique, he pulled Sarada out of her Susano back towards him. Similary Chocho was pulled towards him as well, but her size was reverting as she did so. Once she was closer to him, Sarada could see the sharinan design on the mask as well as the rinnegan behind it. If it wasn't for his other arm, she would have assumed he was her father. Her movement eventually stopped once she and Chocho were next to him. He then walked ahead of them, with his clone landing next to him again.  
"Asura path." Both masked ninja spoke at the same time, as a third arm at the base of their elbows appeared. Each one began creating another spiralling chakra ball.  
"That's the rasengan!" Sarada voiced, deeply shocked. With the extra arm they created both of them began applying elemental chakra to the rasenan.  
"Wind style: rasen shuriken."  
"Fire style rasen shuriken." Both ninja threw their chakra shuriken forward in unison, one above the other.  
"Ultimate shadow shuriken: Inferno hurricane!" The two shuriken merged together, creating a large spiralling vortex of fire. The intense heat caused the demons to not only burn but evaporate as they screamed and roared. Everyone could only stand and watch at the sheer power of this technique which killed the enhanced demon in one shot.

"Who… who are you?" Sarada asked. One of the masked ninja disappeared in a puff of smoke as the other turned and begun to remove his helmet. The first thing they all seen once the helmet was off was the long blonde hair. Sarada fell to her knees. While his left eye was indeed a rinnegan, his right eye was clearly a byakugan. Two whisker like birth marks on his face.  
"Boruto…."


	46. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

There was a tense silence in the room, after defeating the attacking forces Boruto and Sarada had made their way to the medical office to see Himawari. Iona had told them she was ok, just asleep. Iona quickly realised the tension in the room and left the pair alone.  
"So…. You're alive…" Sarada spoke out first, awkwardly.  
"Yeah… Thanks to your dad." He replied, sadly.  
"You have his eye… does that mean?"  
"Yeah… he died saving my life. I'm sorry Sarada." They weren't even looking at one another, they felt as if they couldn't. Boruto overcome with guilt, Sarada felt awkward seeing her father's eye in the man she loved.  
"Boruto… why didn't you come back if you were alive?"  
"It's not that I didn't want to Sarada, I just didn't know where you guys were. That… and I had to finish your dads mission."  
"My Dad's mission…?"

Boruto reached into his pocket, bringin out a number of items. A number of identical items. Identical to the leadership key around Sarada's neck. He had eight of them, presumably one of them was Seph's.  
"The leadership keys…"  
"They are called union keys, each of the five great nations was given two of them after the fourth great war. Sasuke spent the last two years looking for them. As well as looking for you." Sarada was saddened by this, Boruto was only a few miles way when he went missing. Her father was so close.  
"Using my byakugan, it wasn't that hard for me to find the keys. When Seph Yuki came after me, I was saw into his memories and found clues to where you were. Now there is only one left to find."  
"About… that." Sarada took the leadership key out from under her shirt but took another out from her pocket.  
"When we found Chocho she had one as well. Boruto… what are they for?" Boruto was silent for a moment.  
"In the early days of the shinobi union, just after the war. A five kage summit was held to discuss how they were going to dispose of a certain weapon they had acquired. Some of the kage and their advisors wanted to destroy it, however it was decided in the end that they were going to keep it as a last resort. In order to keep it safe, using documents from the Uzumaki clan confiscated from Orichimaru they sealed the weapon behind ten barriers which required 'Chakra Keys' to break. Each of the nations was given two, and the kage were instructed to give them to their most trusted ninja. Lord Sixth trusted his to Wood Style Yamato and his aid. Dad gave his to Shikamaru and Sasuke." Boruto explained, still not looking at her. This troubled Sarada but she suspected why he wouldn't look at her.

"Boruto, the hidden stone compound… what happened?" Sarada asked, she was reaching her hand out to take his but she hesitated. He snapped round, looking at her finally in shock.  
"That was the first group I found after… because of the mask and the rinnegan I was able to convince them I was your dad. I told them what I told you about the union keys, and they happily handed theirs over and offered me a bed for the night. But… the kosen had a body snatcher their… like the one who took Himawari."  
"Kosen?"  
"The humanoids, they call themselves Kosen. This one had the ability to control other people's bodies if he was able to place a certain marking on them. He controlled all of them… and attacked me. I… held back because I didn't want to hurt them. But eventually… he forced me to kill them. Before killing him."  
"How many…Kosen… have you killed?"  
"Three, your dad had killed about seven by the time he died."  
"Boruto…. How did dad die?"  
"Hm. On that scout we were attacked by an enhanced demon…. It was stronger than anything I'd seen before. It had a large blade in place of one of its arms. It toyed with us, took our attacks like they were nothing. It killed the others. And before it could kill me, Sasuke appeared and fought it himself. The thing fought with him on even terms. It was scary. Eventually, he took a hit that was meant for me. I blacked out. When I woke up… he…" Boruto trailed off.

 _Boruto opened his eyes, finding it unsually painful. He was certain they were both open, but he couldn't see out of his left eye. And the pain in his left eye was incredibale. Almost unbearable. Through his right eye, he could see Sasuke sitting across from him. He was sweating and his shirt was covered in blood. He looked down to his abdomen and saw really intense burns at a point. What happened flashed through his mind, Sasuke was hit. Had he seared the wound closed with a fire style?  
"Sensei…" Boruto said weakly, he brought his hand up to feel his left eye. Something got in his way. A bandage? Sasuke was panting, heavily. He looked like he was going to pass out any minute.  
"Boruto…" Boruto looke up, looking in Sasukes eyes. That's when he noticed it, the blood coming from his left eye. Which was closed. Sasuke's right eye assumed its mangekyou form. Boruto found himself caught in a genjutsu. He couldn't move his own body. He couldn't even speak. Boruto found his hand being moved, presumably by Sasukes sharingan. He couldn't control it. His hand eventually placed itself on Sasukes head. And he found a new compulsion arising in him. Sasuke was forcing him to speak.  
"Human….Path."_

"Boruto!" Sarada finally closed the distance between them, taking his hand.  
"I'm sorry, Sarada…" Boruto gripped her hand back. She blushed a little, and so did he. It finally felt like he was back.  
"You know none of that was your fault? Right?"  
"If I was stronger, they might not have had to die." He sulked, it was unlike him. It hurt Sarada to see him like that. Their situation from two years ago had revsersed.  
"So, how is Himawari? Is she ok? Zembala said she was a jinchuriki?"  
"Yeah… Kurama had to seal himself inside of her in order to save her a couple of weeks ago."  
"And your eyes? Why aren't you wearing your glasses?"  
"Kabuto… gave me his eyes. He killed himself to save me."  
"I'm sorry. You look good without them though." Sarada blushed again, now playing with his hand in hers.  
"Oh, Himawari found out about… us."  
"Oh… how did she take it?"  
"I think she was angry that we never told her. But she took it well." Boruto turned to his little sister and wished he didn't have to leave without saying goodbye or hello to her.  
"By the way… Boruto. You know that I…. it wasn't about the…"  
"I love you too, Sarada." Boruto said, turning to hug her. Tears built up in Sarada's eyes, she hugged him back. As tightly as she could.  
"I'm so glad you're back… Boruto!" She began crying, she couldn't hold it in.

"I'm sorry, Sara… I can't stay." He pulled away, he didn't seem to like what he was saying.  
"What do you mean you can't stay? Can't you just take Inojin and the scouts to get the weapon?"  
"No, I might have all the keys to get the weapon. But there is something else I need to use it." He stood up, grabbing his cloak. Sarada jumped and wrapped her arms around him from behind.  
"I just go you back…. Do you really have to go right now?"  
"I'm sorry, the best thing for everyone is I finish the mission as soon as possible. You know… I finally understand why your Dad never gave any affection to your mom before he left for a mission. Its because he thought it would hurt too much. Here, take this." He removed his sword from his waist, and handed it to her.  
"Your sword…."  
"No, _your_ sword. Your dad was going to give it to your for your birthday before the invasion. He carried it with him the whole time hoping to see you and give it to you."  
"My….sword?" Sarada removed it from its sheath, she felt so close to her father again.  
"Also, can you give this to Himawari for me?" He removed the bolt he wore around his neck and placed it in Sarada's other hand.  
"Of course." She smiled to him as he turned getting ready to leave. Just before leaving the room he turned back to her again.  
"Listen, you should leave here. Head for the land of Stone, I don't know why but the demon presence there is smaller than anywhere else. Also, if you run into any Kosen, try to keep them on the offensive. What ever fuels their regerentitve power also fuels their offensive abilities so you can wear them down. Further more, they tend to abuse their regeneration, taking hits from attacks just to test their opponent's strength." He turned again to leave but Sarada grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. She took her free hand up to his head and poked his forehead.  
"Until next time, Boruto Uzumaki."

 _Naruto suddenly found himself caught by a large white chakra chain. He was in his tailed beast form, for some reason or another he couldn't leave it.  
"It's useless, I have a hold of them now. And I'm not letting go." A man across the battle field spoke, he was atop some kind of statue, that's where the chain was coming from. That statues without. The nine tails form started moving forward but Naruto was left behind.  
"I won't let you get Kurama!" He shouted, but nothing he did seemed to be preventing it. It wasn't lon before the other tailed beasts were pulled in too.  
"Kazekage!" Kurama called to the young sand ninja. Before speaking to him telepathically." Even with this, Kurama was fully pulled from his Jinchuriki._

"DAD!" Himawari shot up out of bed. Quickly looking around to see where she was. Much to her relief she was with the koyo. Sarada was sitting next to her.  
"Sarada! Wheres your dad? Is he here?!"  
"Himawari… that wasn't my dad… it was Boruto." Sarada quickly brought Himawari up to speed. The kosen, the union keys, the weapon and Boruto. She even gave her his necklace, proving that it really was Boruto. Sarada left soon afterwards, likely to brief Jinsho about everything she had learned.  
"Kurama." Himawari whispered to herself, seriously. Kurama grunted in response, it was unusual to hear her so serious.  
"It's time… I need you to show me what happened that day. I need to see how my dad died."

 ** _The long awaited flash back. The truth behind the invasion is revealed._**

 ** _Next time, Interlude: Countdown to the end_**


	47. 3

3…

It night in the hidden leaf village; dark, cold and quiet, just like most other nights in this era. Two guards positioned at the north gate bantered about their lives or complained about being stuck on guard duty. But unlike every other night they were on guard duty this one was mere moments away from being a very interesting shift.  
"Hey, what do you think of those rumours about Shino and Tenten?"  
"You don't actually believe those do you? I mean Tenten is hot but I still can't imagine Shino with… well anyone!" In the midst of their conversation twigs snapped and bushes rustled.  
"Did you hear that?"  
"Yeah." Both ninja drew weapons and jumped down to the bottom of the village wall.  
"Who's there?!" One demanded. In the darkness they could hear a voice, faint weak and fading. The voice was barely audible by the noise of the body moving through the forest and some sort of dripping.  
"Na…Naru…to….Hin…ata…" A man's voice moaned weakly moaned.  
"What?"  
"Naruto….Hinata…." The man emerged from the darkness, with clothing as pale as his skin drenched in his own blood. He continued to moan their names as he made his way towards the village clutching his wounds as he limped.  
"Naruto….Hinata… help….me…." The man fell to the ground, his life fading as his blood seeped into the ground.

Across the village a door was knocked, repeatedly despite the late hour.  
"Enough already! I'm coming! I'm coming!" Boruto wined as he made his way down the stairs. He continued to moan as he made his way to the door.  
"Right! What do you want at this time of-Sarada…." Boruto starred at his team mate, greatly shocked to see her.  
"Hey Boruto…may I…may I come in?" She asked nervously, struggling to maintain eye contact. In a similar nervous state Boruto invited his friend in to his home.  
"Is anyone else home?"  
"No, I'm the only one home."  
"Good… I was hoping we could talk alone." She said, entering her friend's home and taking a seat in his living room.  
"I'm sorry Sara, I should have approached you after the funeral… but I couldn't stop thinking about…"  
"The kiss." She finished the sentence for him, causing them both to turn a similar shade of red. Boruto looked away from her, playing with his hands similar to his mother did in her youth.  
"You don't have to apologise, I should have come by sooner too." The room was filled with a great emptiness for a moment, both young people avoiding the others gaze.

"So… how've you been?" Sarada asked, not sure what to say. There was an incredible weight in the room, they could both feel it weighing down on them, dragging their eyes to the floor.  
"It's ok Sarada." She looked round to him now, shocked by the sadness in his voice.  
"Mitsuki had just died, and you thought I was gonna die… so you… reacted… I know it didn't mean anything." He said, clearly holding back the pain in his voice.  
"That's not true!" She jumped out of her chair, but the silence in the room caught her off guard and she was suddenly embarrassed.  
"I…. didn't want either of us to die without you knowing how I… how I felt…." Again they found themselves stuck in an awkward silence, this time starring at each other instead of avoiding one another. Eventually, Boruto broke the silence by laughing.  
"You know I always thought Mitsuki was teasing me for having a crush on you, but looking back now. I feel Mitsuki was trying to show us how we felt about _each other_. He'd probably be really happy to see us TRYING to talk about it." He continued to laugh, Sarada weakly laughed with him.  
"Sooo… what are we going to do about it?" She asked sheepishly.  
"Well I guess we should….."

Boruto was interrupted again but this time it was by another knock on his door.  
"Again?! Who is it this time?!" Boruto angrily stomped to his door and pulled it open to see a ninja dressed in the standard chunin attire.  
"What do you what?!"  
"I'm sorry to interrupt you Lord Boruto, are Lord Seventh and Lady Hinata home?"  
"No, they are at the Hyuga compound visiting my Aunt Hanabi." Boruto told the ninja who nodded before taking his leave. Boruto closed the door and made his way back into the living room.  
"What was that about?" Sarada asked him.  
"I don't know, they were looking for my mom and dad."  
"So… what were you going to say before?"  
"Yeah… we should go on a date…if you want that is."  
"A date? Us? Yeah… that sounds… nice."  
"How about the day after tomorrow? I'm helping Hima with her studying for the genin exam tomorrow, not that she needs it. It's just an excuse for us to spend time together."  
"You two are so cute hehe."

At the Hyuga clan compound the Seventh Hokage watched alongside his wife and father in-law as his daughter sparred with her Aunt.  
"She reminds me so much of you Hinata, she has a lack of drive in her fighting but despite that I see something else in her. Something I haven't seen since Neji."  
"Yeah! That's my girl!" Naruto said with a childish degree of excitement.  
"Your girl… who knocked you out when before she even started the academy." Hinata teased her husband while giggling. Naruto nervously laughed at this unfortunately true statement.  
"What about your son? It's been a month since he first activated his byakugan, has he considered further training in the gentle fist?" Hiashi questioned the two.  
"He hasn't really spoken too much about it, I think the circumstances make it…awkward for him." Hinata spoke, holding her hands to her chest, worried about her son.

"Lord Hiashi, there is a village guard here to see Lord Seventh." A Hyuga ninja spoke from the other side of a paper door way. Hiashi turned to Naruto who nodded to his father in law.  
"Bring him in." He commanded.  
"Lord Seventh, a man approached the village half an hour ago asking for you and your wife by name before collapsing on the ground, dying." Naruto turned to his wife confused.  
"Where is the body?"  
"My partner took it to the morgue, we thought it best not to let anyone else see it until we spoke to you."  
"Good, join your partner. We will join you shortly." The guard took his leave.  
"Dad, can you make sure Himawari gets home safe?"  
"Of course Hinata."

Naruto took just one look at the man, as did Hinata, and that was enough.  
"It… it can't be…"  
"Lady Hinata?" One of the young medics asked. Hinata looked at her husband, he confirmed her fears with an equal amount of shock.  
"Guard."  
"Lord Hokage."  
"Send for Sakura and Sasuke." He commanded.

"Are you going to tell me or not?" Sasuke complained to his wife, with about as much visual emotional he could muster.  
"I promised Sarada I wouldn't tell you where she was going! A girl needs some privacy from her father Sasuke."  
"Hmm." Sasuke turned away, taking his tea with him. Suddenly his eyes were on the door, he could sense him coming.  
"Sakura, I think we should get dressed to go out.

Naruto welcomed his friends to the morgue, apologising for calling them so late. Sasuke looked at the body on the table, rather uninterested as he could find nothing of note on the man. Sakura on the other hand, looked at Naruto and Hinata in the same way they looked at each other moments ago. Sasuke looked between his comrades, not able to figure out the clue he was missing.  
"Do we know this guy?" He eventually asked, growing tired of the stare game.  
"This is… Toneri Otsutsuki." Sakura spoke up to her husband, frightened. Sasuke looked back at the corpse, with a hint of surprise.  
"The one who had the same visual jutsu as Hinata? Who controlled the moon?" His colleagues nodded in response.  
"Sakura, what do you think happened to him?" Hinata asked, somewhat concerned.  
"I'll need to do a full autopsy but, based on visual inspections I'd say he was tortured."  
"Sasuke, I want you to get Kiba. See if you can follow his trail. Find who done this."


	48. 2

2…

"Right, so you know the answer to this one?"  
"Yeah, water style right?"  
"Yeah, well done Hima. You are going to ace this exam!" Boruto encouraged his younger sister, who loved every moment of it. Hinata watched her children studying together as her second child prepared to begin her career as a kunoichi and it made Hinata feel like her life had passed her buy but she wouldn't change any minute of it.  
"Hey Hima, could you go get the other books from your room. I forgot to lift them." Himawari stood up and ran out of the room to get her books. Boruto stared at his mom and began awkwardly fidgeting. Hinata couldn't bring herself to ask why as it was too cute to see him mimicking her younger self.  
"Hey… eh mom?" Boruto asked, flustered.  
"Yes, Boruto?"  
"Could you give me some advice?"  
"What about son?"  
"I'm going on…a date tomorrow…with Sarada…" He said, trying to hide his face behind his high collared jacket.

Suddenly Hinata really felt like her life had passed her by, her oldest child was preparing for his first date and asking for advice. Hinata found herself wishing Naruto was here, she would love to see Naruto to give dating advice. And he was going out with Sasuke's daughter, Hinata was far too curious as to what Naruto and Sasuke's reaction to this news would be.  
"Really? That's amazing! When did this happen?!"  
"Last night…. She came round and we talked about…."  
"Talked about what?"  
"…eh we kissed…on the mission when…." Boruto fell away from his words, remembering the moment all to clearly.  
"Oh…"  
"Hey big brother! I got the books!" Himawari ran back into the room, Hinata looked at her son who shook his head at her.  
"Alright Himawari, let's look through these."

Elsewhere, Kiba lead Sasuke down Toneri's trail. After all the years that had passed since Sasuke went rouge, Kiba had finally let go of the anger he held toward him. The men were still not exactly friends but they could work together without any awkwardness.  
"This is odd, according to the Intel Shikamaru gave us the moon portal is in the opposite direction." Kiba said, picking up pieces of the trail.  
"You think it could be a fake trail?" Sasuke questioned.  
"Why would a dying man set up a fake trail?"  
"I never said Toneri was the one who set it. Someone had to do that to him." Sasuke explained, not that Kiba disagreed but he was certain the trail he was following was real.  
"There is another thing worth noting though."  
"Hm?"  
"The trail, the village hidden in mirage is in this direction." Sasuke seemed more alert than he had done in the journey up until this point.

"The village hidden in the mirage?" Konohamaru questioned.  
"Yes, they are the only shinobi village outside of the great nations whose leaders will be at this kage summit. They will be making their application to the shinobi union, Lord Okisuke of the Samurai will be present as well since the meeting is in the land of iron." Shikamaru explained. Konohamaru whined, slouching back in his chair.  
"Come on Konohamaru, you know that union key holders aren't allowed at these meetings. Especially in the land of iron. You need to protect the seventh should something go wrong. And I need you to keep an eye on the village hidden in the mirage."

"Keep an eye on them?"  
"Yes. We only recently learned of its existence, they claim to have hid from the world behind a barrier laced with genjutsu. For decades that part of the world looked like a chasm too steep and sharp to be ventured into. They called it 'the wound in the world' and then one day, seemingly from nowhere there it stood. An advanced metal city claiming itself a hidden village. Ever since it appeared, the shinobi union has been investigating it but nothing has turned up. Sasuke has been pressuring the seventh to let him look into it himself but Naruto has been trying to get him to focus on his daughter now that he is finally home."  
"Why have they shown themselves now? After all this time?"  
"They claim they hid from the world to stay out of our wars, and now that we are moving towards real peace, they wish to be a part of it."  
"Sounds convenient."  
"hm, exactly. I was expecting to have to tell you that myself. Now moving on, you are aware that the hidden stone have been unable to identify what elements exist in the meteorite that landed in their country last year?"  
"Ugh why did I agree to this…? This could put me off of becoming Hokage!"

"Hey, how goes the briefing?" The seventh hokage entered with his trusted friend and one of the world's best medical ninja, Sakura Haruno.  
"Better than I expected actually, Sakura… if you are here I take it you have something to report about the autopsy?"  
"Yes, the autopsy is still underway. But I came to deliver the preliminary findings."  
"And?"  
"Well, the first thing I noticed when I saw his body was that all of his wounds had stiches which I can only assume he tore on his way to the village. Based on the amount of them I assumed it was someone torturing him, but now that I've had a better look at the body…" She trailed off, as if not wanting to be correct in her next statement.  
"It seems to be more like dissection than torture."  
"Dissection?!"  
"Yes, having examined the internal organs there is evidence of them having been cut open as well. Also, some of the internal wounds are noticeably older than others."  
"Couldn't that mean he was tortured over a long period of time?" Naruto asked.  
"No, because… his organs were examined in the same order I was examining for the autopsy."  
"Well, that's disturbing. Could it be because he is a descendant of the Ōtsutsuki clan? There could be more like Momoshiki coming here, perhaps they stopped to see how their descendants have evolved."  
"It's impossible to say at this point, with more time I might be able to get an answer. Naruto, Hinata has the Tenseigan. I think you should assign her some extra security while you aren't in the village tomorrow."  
"Hm, Hinata was planning on going to the hyuga compound after Himawari's graduation tomorrow. I will get some guards to escort them."  
"After she graduates? What makes you think she won't flunk like you did? Just because Boruto doesn't take after you doesn't mean she doesn't." Sakura teased.  
"Ha! My baby girl couldn't disappoint me if she tried."  
"Hm, you dote on her so much Naruto."  
"Speaking of which, I should get home. She's going to be mad that I won't be in the village tomorrow. By the way, how is Sarada doing? I don't think she and Boruto have spoken since the funeral." Sakura was very uncomfortable all of a sudden, which was noticed by Shikamaru but both Naruto and Konohamaru were oblivious.

 _*the previous night*_

 _"_ _Here, I made this for you." Sakura handed Sasuke a small lunch box as he prepared to leave for his mission with Kiba.  
"Hm? When did you make this? We just got back from Naruto's office. Do you have these ready for me in case I have a last minute mission."  
"Of course not! I did it when you were in the room collecting your mission gear! I'm just that good a cook Sasuke!" A very flustered Sakura defended herself, not that Sasuke was buying this act.  
"hm, thank you." He laughed, much to her further embarrassment. A peaceful silence was found between them after this, they smiled at one another as Sakura leaned upwards to kiss her husband good bye. At the last second Sasuke turned away from her.  
'It's been seventeen years! One kiss goodbye wouldn't cause the end of the world!' Sakura screamed in her mind, but only let a comically disappointed look show.  
"I'll see you when I get back." Sasuke said as he left home.  
"Papa really enjoys teasing you doesn't he mama." Sarada said, looking down at her mother from the top of the stairs.  
"Sarada! How long have you been standing there?!"  
"The whole time, you should pay more attention mama. Is everything ok?"  
"Huh, yeah why do you ask?"  
"When I was at Boruto's one the village gaurds came by looking for Lord Seventh and Lady Hinata. Does that have anything to do with this last minute mission papa is going on?"  
"Yeah, I can't say too much right now. But someone important has been killed, Dad is going to look into who killed him. So, how did it go?" Sadara started blushing, much to her mother's amusement  
"We are going on a date... the day after tomorrow…"  
"Maybe it's a good thing Sasuke isn't in the village hehe. I'll be working for lord Seventh tomorrow but I can get Shizune to cover for me for an hour or two and we can go shopping if you like?" Sarada didn't answer, she just seemed more embarrassed by the idea. _

"I met up with her for lunch today while Shizune covered the autopsy, she seems better actually. I'm sure she and Boruto will patch things up!" She said with an awkward laugh, again unnoticed by Naruto and Konohamaru.

That night in the Uzumaki house hold both parents had equally special conversations with one of their children.  
"So, do you know where you are going to take her? And what you are going to wear?" Hinata asked her son, within the privacy of his own room.  
"Of course! I have a whole plan!" Boruto exclaimed, earlier in the day he was able to convince Himawari to have some private studying while he prepared a 'mock exam' for her. He used this opportunity to get some very helpful advice from his mother. First, that he should not take her to the lunch house that their team usually went after missions. Second that he should not wear his normal mission gear. And third, and most importantly, have a plan and a backup.  
"Which is?" Hinata asked sternly, making sure her son had heeded all of her advice.

"Come on Hima, you know daddy has a lot of important work. You know he would never miss your exam if it were up to him. I'll even use Kurama to get back to the village as quickly as possible!" Naruto pleaded with his daughter in her room, while she had her back to him. Naruto began to cry at his daughters cold treatment, having flash backs to Boruto's own graduation.  
"You know… you could make it up to me." Himawari spoke silently, turning her head slightly.  
"ANYTHING!" Naruto shouted very loudly, the noise travelling through to Boruto's room.  
"Can we visit Uncle Bee soon? I want to show him the raps I've been practicing." Himawari span round, only to see a look of fear on her father's face. The side of Hinata he saw the day Himawari became Killer Bee's biggest, and only, fan would haunt him for the rest of his days.  
"Dad! You said anything!" She moaned.  
"You did tell her _anything,_ Naruto." Kurama laughed from within his jinchuriki realising the younger girl had tricked him.  
"Ok, here's what we will do. If you pass tomorrow, I'll assign you and your team the mission of escorting me for a diplomatic mission to the hidden cloud. But you can't tell your mom or brother ok? It'll be our secret."  
"Yay!" She screamed, causing her father to put a finger to her lips, for fear that Hinata would hear them.

The hours passed, the Uzumaki family met as a whole for dinner with two secrets between them. Between father and daughter, mother and son. Eventually the night came to an end as both children went to their rooms, eagerly waiting for tomorrow. Overcome with excitement and nerves neither child could sleep easily and both were slowly guided to sleep by the sound of the clocks in their respective rooms.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick. Tock.

Tick.

Tock.


	49. 1

1….

 __Himawari woke up that day, excited that today would be the first step in her career as a kunoichi. She turned to see her alarm clock, she had woken up early as she thought she would. She quickly got ready, she had actually planned an entire outfit for the day. By her own design it looked incomplete, she had chosen these garments intent on adding a forehead protector to it. She planned on wearing it as her mother did when she graduated, around her neck. Making her way down to the kitchen she found her mother and brother at the breakfast table. She gathered her father had already left, probably early that morning before anyone else woke up. Hinata loved making food for her family and used any occasion to make something special, Himawari's genin exam even qualified as a special occasion.  
"Good luck you two!" Hinata said as her two children walked out of the house. Boruto started blushing and turned to his mother rapidly.  
"What do you need luck for big brother?"  
"Training stupid. You should be thinking about the exam!" Boruto said, pulling his sister away from the house.  
"Boruto! Let me go!" Himawari kicked into the air.

Boruto and his sister walked to the academy together, for what Himawari hoped would be the last time. Boruto had the utmost faith in his younger sister. Once he left her at the academy he could see the nerves she was trying to hide but thankfully for him once she left he could stop hiding his own nerves for what the day held. He made a hand sign and undone his transformation jutsu revealing a completely different outfit. He was still wearing a white t-shirt but he had chosen a different jacket at the insistence of his mother, this was a bit more formal than his normal jacket. He had also chosen not to wear his forehead protector, which was annoying him endlessly.

"Boruto…" He heard a nervous Sarada approaching him from behind. He turned to find her, also without her forehead protector, which he found a little weird, so used to seeing her with it. Instead of wearing her own shinobi outfit, she had chosen a white and black dress and had changed her glasses to a black set to match the dress.  
"Hey… you look… nice."  
"Thanks, so… where are we going?" She wasn't able to look at him properly, she was so nervous.  
"Follow me." Boruto said confidently. In the next few minutes she followed Boruto to the back of the village, there weren't any words exchanged in this small journey.  
"So here we are." He pointed out a small fish restaurant at the edge of the hidden leaf's high rise development. Sarada thought it was nice, she hadn't been here before, it was a change for them both. However once she sat down at the seat Boruto had booked for them that changed. She could see the entirety of the old hidden leaf village, she didn't realise how close to the edge they actually were. They were directly above the hokage stone faces.  
"Wow, this is some view."  
"Yeah well, one day everyone down there will look up and see you so I thought maybe, they should get used to it." He explained, nervously.

Sarada began laughing.  
"There is no way this was your idea." She turned round to him, still blushing.  
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"  
"Boruto, come on."  
"It was my mom's idea…" Boruto blushed.  
"I knew it, I guess she did something like this for your Dad?"  
"Yeah, picnic." Sarada laughed.  
"Well, still. Thank you, Boruto." She sat down, inviting him to do the same.

As the hours passed, Himawari and her class mates sat the varying exams: Shinobi history, shinobi union politics and procedure, the anti-union terrorist quiz and the ninjutsu understanding exam. The students who didn't originate from shinobi clans were required to take a taijutsu exam as most of the shinobi clans had their own special taijutsu or nin-taijutsu. After all of this, Shino Aburame, their chunin sensei passed around sheets of paper on the desks of everyone present. Shino was known for being unorthodox in his methods.  
"We have now come to the final stage of the exam, everyone examine the piece of paper in front of you. Some of you will have a riddle on your paper as well as a symbol of some kind, the others will simply have your total score for the previous exams. Those of you with the latter have failed the graduation exam." With that, Himawari quickly lifted her paper off of the ground to see a line of text at the top of the sheet. At the bottom of the sheet there was a star, one half white and one half black.  
"Now, for the final part of the exam. Everyone here must find the other two people with the same symbol as them, they are your genin team from now onwards. And by solving the three riddles you will be able to find the location of your jonin supervisor. Now, in finding the other members of your team you are not allowed to speak. You have one hour to complete this test, and note there is more teams than jonin. In other words…." Himawari activated her Byakugan to quickly find the other members of her squad. The first person she found with the same symbol was Tokuma Inuzuka. He was looking frantically at the young ninja around him trying to spot the star but was unable too. He wondered if it was because he was simultaneously listening to his teacher while looking that was hindering him. It wasn't long before Himawari approached him, showing her piece of paper. Before she could begin looking for their third he found them. Jinsho Aburame, he quickly greeted them before taking the paper sheets off of his new team mates. He looked at the three riddles, before looking up and signalling his new team mates to follow.

"Some conversation would have been nice…" Himawari sighed.  
"Don't you know who he is? That's Jinsho Aburame, the one who all the teachers wanted to graduate as a chunin but Lord Seventh wouldn't allow it. It's no surprise he solved the riddles so quickly." Tokuma explained, with the small dog at his side barking quietly.  
"I knew his name, but I didn't know that." She replied as they both lagged behind Jinsho. Eventually they followed him to the hospital.  
"The hospital… I don't know how you got that from my riddle Jinsho…" Tokuma questioned.  
"I didn't. I solved all three riddles, only the one Himawari had even remotely suggested a location. 'The place where the future begins'. Rather where babies are born."  
"Wait, you only solved one riddle?!" Himawari shouted.  
"No, I solved all three. The answer to the one I had was air and the one Tokuma had the answer was seal. It's likely that only one of the three riddles is actually real and the others are to throw us off."  
"Are you sure… that seems like quite an assumption."  
"Shino Sensei is known for being difficult and unorthodox and the genin pass rate has dropped since he took over, but all of those who do pass rise through the ranks much faster. Every genin who has graduated from his class passed their first chunin exam. Excluding your brothers class Himawari, but that was a unique incident."  
"You really are something, Jinsho Aburame. I have been expecting you." All three turned to see a jonin ninja sitting on a bench across from them.

"I was really worried you were wrong Jinsho." Himawari sighed with relief.  
"So you are our Jonin Sensei?" Tokuma asked.  
"Yes, my name is Mirai Sarutobi. Why don't you all introduce yourself now, and tell us something about yourself. Like your goals?"  
"My name is Tokuma Inuzuka. This is my best friend, Tobimaru. I guess my goal is pretty simple, I want to help train ninja hounds across the entire shinobi union. Spreading my clans reputation across the world."  
"My name is Jinsho Aburame. At the formation of the hidden leaf, my clan was one of the greatest in the leaf village alongside the Hyuga and the Uchiha and now most nations haven't heard of us. I seek to restore my clan's name."  
"Seem's like the two of you have some similar goals. Hopefully you can help one another. And you?"  
"My name is Himawari Uzumaki, and I want to journey the world helping people like my father has done but… I don't want to be known simply as my father's daughter. I want to be a great ninja in my own right."  
"I can relate to you, I am the granddaughter of the third hokage and my dad died in service of the village as well. But I want to be remembered for my own actions too. Now, it's important that the three of you can work together, so I would like to begin by each of you giving a small demonstration of your abilities."

At the other side of the village, Boruto and Sarada were finally able to shake off the awkwardness they felt in their date and had begun discussing their favourite memories of their fallen friend.  
"You met his dad once didn't you? Orochimaru?"  
"Yeah… I'm not sure if he was Mitsuki's father or mother. You'll understand if you ever meet him."  
"Ah! Come on. I just wanna know this guy."  
"Hehe, trust me you don't." A silence filled the air for the first time since they started talking about Mitsuki, Sarada decided to take the opportunity to peck Boruto on the lips. Boruto didn't see it coming, he recoiled slightly embarrassed. Sarada just blushed, pleased with herself. After gaining his composure Boruto blushed back.  
"Hey um, Himawari should be getting out of her exam right? Do you want to go see her?" Sarada asked.  
"Yeah sure…. But we will need to… change. I didn't tell her or my dad we were doing this."  
"It's ok, I just told my mom too."

"Last night, I sent Sasuke out to investigate the re-appearance of Toneri Otsustiki."  
"The one who caused the moon to descend?" Gaara questioned.  
"Yes, I am expecting a report within the hour." Naruto explained to his colleagues.  
"Hokage, I would like to extend my condolences to your son about his friend, we should have stopped Jonsho long ago."  
"Thank you Raikage. It wasn't your fault."  
"How are we doing on tracking the anti-union terrorists he worked for?" The Tsuchikage asked, although the response was clear from everyone's face.  
"I think it's about time we got to the main agenda, I would like to welcome the leader of the village hidden in the mirage: Zembala Cretzch." The Samurai general spoke out.

Boruto and Sarada arrived at the academy, seeing Hanabi and Hinata waiting on Himawari as well. Boruto shared a look with his mother to tell her that everything was going well. It wasn't long before Himawari ran out, carrying her new headband in her hands.  
"Hey Hima, I told you that you could do it!" Boruto ran out to hug his sister, which Sarada thought was immensely cute. Not being caught up in emotion like Boruto, Sarada was able to spot the members of the anbu black ops around the area. She knew if she could notice them, Lady Hinata and Lady Hanabi certainly could.  
"You not going to put the head band on, Himawari?" Hanabi asked her niece.  
"No, I want daddy to be the first person to see me with it." Boruto laughed a little at his sister, he remembered feeling the same way, not that he admitted it at the time.  
"Alright, Sarada and I have to go. I'll catch up with you alright?"  
"Ok big brother. I'll see you later." She ran off with her aunt and mother.

"Hey Sasuke, what the hell is this…."  
"What's wrong Kiba?"  
"You can't sense it?" Sasuke took a moment, properly sensing the area around him when he noticed it.  
"What…. This entire village…"  
"It's deserted…" Kiba finished the statement.

"Thank you, Kage of the five nations, for having me here today. All at once, in this place." Zembala placed both of his hands together, as if praying as a sign of respect to the kage.  
"But…"

"Wait… if this isn't a real village…" Kiba began asking.  
"Who is meeting with the five kage right now?!" Sasuke finished.

"Now you die." Zembala slid his hands apart somehow creating a spark with his gloves which grew into a massive flame not only engulfing the room but destroying the building as a whole. When the smoke cleared, only the kage and a handful of their body guards remained, hidden behind a wall of sand.

"He is meeting one of us, Sasuke Uchiha." An unknown voice said, suddenly appearing behind the two leaf ninja. Both ninja quickly moved to put some distance between them. The unknown figure raised a single arm, and created a small orb which hurtled forward at remarkable speed.  
"Kiba!" Sasuke shouted as a warning, but it was too late. The small glowing energy like orb had already burrowed its way through the other ninja, pulling a stream of his blood from the exit wound on his body.

Zembala raised one of his hands to his mouth, as a result his sleeve fell down to reveal some kind of glowing bracelet into which he uttered a single word.

In the leaf village, and all the shinobi villages around the world. The sky opened bringing forth countless elliptic vessels, everyone just starred at them in some kind of disbelief.  
"That was…." Hintata gasped, earning confused looks from her sister and daughter alike.  
"Hinata?"  
"That was the void…."

Zembala brought his other wrist to his mouth, taking the other to his side. Yet reaveling another bracelet, this one however he had more to say.  
"This is Zembala Cretzch to all Kosen forces in this universe. Begin the invasion, make sure that every living thing in this universe knows. That the end is nigh."

In an instant, the massive ships went from being objects of curiosity to heralds of death as countless demons burst forth from within them. Like animals breaking free from the eggs in their nests. The demons fell from the sky, and onto the world below. The shinobi world, the world which was now mere moments from its end.


	50. The Beginning of the end

Interlude: The End is nigh Beginning of the End

Himawari looked up at the falling 'debris' in blissful ignorance of what it really was. She turned to her mother and aunt, observing their active byakugan. Seeing this she activated her own and used them to get a closer look at the 'debris' and finding herself suddenly gripped with fear.  
Elsewhere, Sarada stood with Boruto who looked up with his own byakugan.  
"Boruto, what do you see?" The debris was alive, there seemed to be two kinds. The ones covered in a thin lifelessly pale flesh, and the ones covered in a death black metal. It was just as the demons finally hit the ground that the true panic finally set into the people of the world. A mass of them crashed into the buildings across from Himawari and her family and like falling water they surged towards them like a wave.

"Run!" Hinata took her daughters hand, pulling her away from the scene rapidly. In the rush, Himawari dropped her ninja headband on the ground behind them. Despite the hell unfolding around her, in the moment that was all that mattered, the sound of it hitting the ground was like glass shattering in her heart. As Himawari and Hinata ran forward away from the conflict Hanabi turned back.  
"Eight trigrams: Vacuum Palm wall!" Using both hands she was able to knock back most of the demon wave chasing them, in the mix she could see the people that didn't make it away from the demons. Or what was left of them. Some of the demons she repelled had filled their mouths with flesh of fellow leaf ninja, Hanabi  
swallowed her heart turning her back to join her family.  
"Hinata… do you want to fill me in what the hell is going on?!"  
"I don't know Hanabi… really."

Elsewhere, a young girl cried, struggling to pull her mother from their fallen home. The mother pleaded for her daughter to leave her, and save herself. Whether out of love for her mother, or her own fear. She was unable to do as her mother wished. A group of demons soon swarmed over them, teeth mere inches from the girl.  
"Water style: Rasen blast!" A bullet of rushing water tore into the demon, sending it into the rubble. Boruto quickly rushed towards the demons, with his long sword in hand. He wielded it in a reverse grip behind his back, an unusual stance to be sure. He made a gesture with his free hand, which under his jacket bore a wrist bracer like Sasuke's, using this he summoned a second long sword into that hand wielding this one in a normal fashion in front of his body.  
"Sarada! Get the civilians out of here!" Boruto shouted, activating his byakugan. Sarada jumped down next to the girl and used her chakra enhanced strength to lift the debris off of the girl's mother. She took both of their hands and ran them away from the area. The demons pursued but Boruto got between them. Running towards the demons he began to spin on the spot.  
"Eight Trigrams: Uzumaki Hyuga style, rotating blade dance!" Boruto cut through the demons with both swords, using his byakugan Boruto was able to safely turn away from attacks and still see them, easily blocking with one sword and continuing his rotation to attack with the other. Boruto had spent the month since he awakened his byakugan perfecting this new sword style, partly inspired by the gentle fist and killer bee's own kenjutsu. Sarada made a series of handsigns before biting into her finger and thrusting her hand down onto the ground summoning a large hawk, she brought the civilians onto it before ordering the hawk to take them somewhere safe.

One of the demons that Boruto had just been fighting crawled forward, unable to use its hind legs in its current condition. It lifted one arm before biting into it, releasing a massive burst of orange energy. The energy created a dust cloud which for a moment hindered Sarada's view, but Boruto was able to see what stood inside with his byakugan. The demon had grew massively, it now easily towered the surrounding buildings, or what remained of them. The demon brought one arm and swung it down to grab the blonde ninja, the attack was faster than he anticipated but it was still easily dodged. Sarada rushed forward, jumping over Boruto and into the large demons face. She punched the larger demon right between the eyes, knocking it down with her enhanced strength. Once it was on its back and before she landed herself she used a fire style jutsu to incinerate the demon.  
"What the hell is going on?!"  
"I don't know Boruto… I really don't know." Both ninja were suddenly alerted by more flashes of orange light in the distance.  
"Boruto, can you?" Boruto nodded, dropping his sword and forming a hand sign. Concentrating his chakra he used his byakugan to look far into the distance towards the source of the light to see more large demons, towering over other ninja.  
"Yeah… it's more of those large… well whatever these things are."  
"Boruto, I am going to help out over there. With my skills I'm better equipped to handle the large ones, you should use your byakugan to find anymore trapped civilians and get them to the evacuation shelters." Sarada turned away from him, preparing to head out when she felt his hand gripping her wrist and pulling her back. He wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face into her shoulder.  
"Don't die."  
"Don't you die on me either, promise?"

Across the village, other ninja fought against the invaders. Shikamaru, alongside his most trusted student, Mirai Sarutobi fought against a large group of colossal demons. He bound them using his shadow possession jutsu before she used her wind style nin-taijutsu to cut them all down.  
"Mirai… this attack is unlike anything the village has faced before. I need you do something for me." Shikamaru said sternly.  
"What is it, shikamaru sensei?" Shikamaru took something from around his neck and forced it into his students' hand.  
"Continue helping with the evacuation, and no matter what happens. Make sure this key stays in the hands of the living."  
"But sensei… what about you?!"  
"I'm going to meet with Choji and Ino, work on taking out as many enemies as we can."  
"But sensei-!"  
"Go, Mirai!"

"You... who are you?" Gaara asked of the 'Ninja' before him, although he received no answer.  
"Is this why the hidden mirage requested this? Simply to try and kill the five kage? And declare war on the union?" The raikage followed with his own questions.  
"There is no village hidden in mirage, is there?" Naruto spoke up, being the only one to gain a response from the man.  
"Naruto, what are you talking about?" Gaara asked, not following Naruto's logic.  
"He isn't from a hidden village, he isn't even a ninja. You are from another universe, another reality aren't you, Zembala?"  
"Oh? How unusual, how do you know this?"  
"Right now, when you summoned your reinforcements, they came through the void. The space between realities."

"It seems that this universe has some knowledge of the multiverse that is rare indeed. Yes, I am from another universe, we set up the pretext of a hidden village in order to gather Intel and draw the leaders of the villages to a single location. To kill you." Zembala then zipped about the room, like a blur moving too fast for the shinobi to follow and began knocking them down. Once getting back on his feet, Naruto entered his six paths chakra mode. This time, when Zembala began moving again he Naruto noticed something odd. From his perspective, Zembala was no longer moving fast, he seemed to be moving at a normal pace but everyone else around them had begun moving much slower, barely moving. Now unaffected by whatever technique Zembala was employing he moved rushed towards him, noting that he had still slowed down significantly. Grabbing zembala, he threw him across the room.  
"Don't think this will be easy, we shinobi don't go down without a fight." Naruto boasted, although zembala merely laughed in response.  
"Good, I love a challenge."


	51. Legends End

The Legends End

"Hanabi watch out!" Hinata called to her younger sister as demons began pouring out from the rublle behind her. Hanabi span on the spot, using her rotation technique. Knocking the demons back. But they were coming at her faster than she could knock them back. One of them eventually managed to slip past her rotation and catch her leg stopping the rotation. Hinata let go of her daughters hand for a moment and made a handsign.  
"Tenseigan!" Her eyes shot open, having changed from the featureless byakugan to the green star like tenseigan and her body enveloped in a green chakra. She shot her hand forward, summoning a group of truth seeking balls which blasted the demon off of her sister.  
"Thanks sis!" Having received chakra from Hamura otsutsuki during the moon mission many years ago, Hinata was the only member of the Hyuga clan to be able to use the byakugans evolved form. Her usage of this power earned her the title of "First lady" in the hidden leaf.  
"We need to keep mobbing there is too many of them." She instructed, taking her daughters hand again. Using her remaining hand and enhanced chakra she used the air palm technique to clear a path in the demons infront of them.  
"Come on! This way!" A new demon fell from the sky, crushing the ground beneath it. This one was different. It had the same kind of dark skin as the metal ones, but its skin seemed more slimy and smooth.

"Get out of our way!" Hinata swiped her hand forward sending her truth seeking balls towards the target. The fatter demon opened its mouth wide, sending out multiple purple energy balls. Countering her attack.  
"It stopped my attack?! Hanabi! Take Himawari and go! Now!" Hinata charged forward to engage the demon while her sister and daughter fled. The demon had some kind of attena on its head, hanging down over the back of its head. The small ball at the end of this attena began to glow with energy, pink energy which was dense enough to cause the ground around it to spinter and rise into the air.  
"This thing…. It's just like them…. I can't sense its power at all but… its affect on the atmosphere is obvious." Hinata thought back to her previous experience with beings from another universe.

Elsewhere, at the shinobi academy some of the proctors began evacuating the younger students, hoping to lead them to safety. A group of flesh demons ran towards the children, there wasn't enough gaurds. They were spread too thin. The demons were so close to them, it was like they were already dead.  
"Leaf Hurricane!" Two ninja, similar in appearance jumped infront of the children. Rock and Metal Lee. With a barrage of kicks they were both able to repel the demons.  
"Shino, get going! Get the kids out of here!" Lee turned commanding his comrade but…"Shino!" Shino had taken a hit for one of his students, the jaws of a metal demon gripping tightly into his shoulder, missing his neck by mear centimeters. They had descended from the walls of the academy and more were jumping down. The ground was shaking, Lee turned back and the demons he and his son had repelled had somehow enlarged themselves.  
"Eight inner gates, Seventh gate of shock, open!" Lee span round, swinging a roundhouse kick into the air in the direction of the falling demons.  
"True leaf Whirlwind!" As he swung his leg it created a wall of wind that pinned the falling demons to the wall of the academy. Lee quickly disappeared, appearing before the larger demons.  
"Dancing leaf shadow… rising dragon barrage!" Using the leaf shadow, he quickly ran between each demon kicking them into the air. Finally, jumping into the air above the demons.  
"True leaf whirlwind: dragon jaw crush!" Lee swung his leg round again, this time trapping the demons were crushed by the wind as their momentum threw them into. Lee started breathing heavily, struggiling to stand.  
"Metal! Get the kids out of here!"

"That sound…. That was Lee's dragon crush…" Tenten spoke, defending her now disabled sensei from a group of demons along side her own student, Kabuto Uchiha. Tenten threw open her largest scroll which launched mulitle kunai. Kabuto made a hand sign, activating his mangekyo sharingan and began manuipulating all the kunai at once.  
"Ninja art: Knife swarm jutsu!" Using his eye he directed the countelles kunai through the bodies of the demons although he was unable to pierce the skin of the metal ones.  
"Damnit…"  
"Lightning style: Purple lightning!" The sixth hokage appeared before them, swiping his hand through the air, launching multiple purple lightning attacks which pierced through even the metal skins.

"Hokage, another universe? What are you talking about?!" The Tsuchikage shouted, not taking her eyes off of her incredibly 'fast' enemy.  
"I don't think it matters right now, Tsuchikage." The Mizukage looked away and noticed the demons gathering around them.  
"You guys take care of this monsters, what ever ability he has to slow you guys down doesn't work on me." Naruto pointed out, rushing forwards to Zembala. Zembala clapped his hands together, sending a wave of flames towards Naruto. Naruto created a large rasengan, using it to push through the flames. Zembala moved out of the attacks way, diving to the side of it. He pressed his hand into the floor, summoning various spikes up from the ground. Naruto jumped into the air to dodge the attack, he then created a shadow clone. Pushing his legs off of the clone he propelled himself back towards Zembala. He swung his fist forward, punching Zembala into the ground.  
"Damn… the fact that my quicksilver abilitiy doesn't work on you is…. Well irritating. I guess I have no choice but to use this." Zembala brought out a small red stone, with a black ring wrapped around it. He started applying pressure to the stone, breaking the ring. The stone began to glow into a mass of red flesh, fragments of metal could be seen pertruding from the mass. Eventually the metal covered it as it began to take the shape of a hunched over humanoid like figure covered in dark metal. With a large blade in place of one of its arms.

The blade armed demon disappeared from view, if only for an instant. Out of instinct, Garaa rose his sand shield to protect himself and the other kage. Even with that, the demon was able to inflict wounds on the four of them the sand serving only to lessen the blow.  
"Garaa! Everyone!"  
"Don't turn you back on me!" Zembala descended on Naruto with an axe made of stone. Naruto created two chakra arms from his shoulders catching the blade. He proceeded to create a third chakra arm from the base of his back. With a rasengan in that hand he pressed it into Zembala's chest, sending him spiralling away.  
"Haha, that was pretty good." Zembala stood up, the wound in his stomach regenerating. Naruto growled in anger as he watched his foes regeneration. The bladed demon then made it's away towards Naruto at frightening speed. Naruto tried to catch it with his chakra arms but the demon was able to cut through it.  
"That things fast…. And it's strong… but..." Using his chakra cloak, Naruto was even faster than this demon. Knocking it away with a single punch was no great feat for the Seventh Hokage either. With his speed and strength he knocked the demon around with ease, as if playing with it. He finished his barrage with a rasengan.

Despite the damage it had taken, the demon got back up. It brough it's bladed arm infront of its body and placed its hand on the base of its 'forearm'. Naruto stared at the demon for a moment, his eyes widening in shock.  
"You…. You can't be…"  
"Naruto?" Kurama asked his jinchuriiki, who began to sweat with fright.  
"That thing… it's-." Naruto was cut off by the blood gushing out of his mouth. He looked down and saw the stone spikes that had grown around him and pierced his legs chest and stomach, straight through. He looked over his shoulder and saw Zembala with his hand on the ground.  
"NARUTO!" Garaa cried out, seeing his most cherished friend being gravely injured. Naruto released a burst of chakra from all over his body, breaking the spikes in his body before falling to the ground.

Blood, blood everywhere. The young man held onto his chest, stopping the bleeding only delayed the inevitable this was how Naruto Uzumaki was to meet his end. The slower bleeding allowed his exceptional life force to stay alive despite his damaged heart. He brought his free, bandaged arm to his stomach underneath his shirt.  
"NARUTO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WITHOUT ME YOULL DIE IN MINUTES?!" Kurama protested what Naruto was about to do.  
"Kurama… we both know that this wound is enough to kill me anyway…. It will just take longer without you…" Kurama went to protest but he knew that Naruto was right.  
"Listen… these guys. They've beat us. The five kage are done. We will hold them here as long as possible but I need you to go back to the village. Protect my family… please Kurama."  
"Naruto I-"  
"KURAMA! PLEASE!" Naruto begged his friend, Kurama couldn't argue anymore and he gave Naruto a silent nod.  
"Goodbye… Naruto… My friend."

Naruto's body was enveloped in red chakra, which soon took the appearance of a large fox head. The head quickly rushed into the sky as the foxes true body emerged from it. Kurama looked down at his dying friend as well as the remaining kage before running in the direction of the leaf village. Both the demon and Zembala turned to purse the giant fox but both were caught by Garaa's sand. Naruto struggeled to his feat with a rasenshuriken in hand.  
"Your opponent, is us!"

"32 palms! 64 palms!" Hinata thrust one last strike into the slime skinned demon, even with her tenseigan enhanced strikes her attacks were minimally effective. The demon scremead, bringing its hands forward it launched two large energy blasts towards the female ninja.  
"Tenseigan: rotation!" Hinata span but was unable to disperse the energy instead deflecting them. The two blasts flew across the village creating large explosions, with her byakugan Hinata was able to see just where they had landed. And who they killed.  
"My attacks barley affect this thing…. And if I continue to deflect its attacks the village won't last... I'll need to use that technique. Once I do this, my tenseigan will fade and I won't be able to use it again for at least an hour, but I don't have a choice." Hinata stood straight, taking the stance of her greatest technique. The truth seeking balls began to wrap themseleves around her hands like gloves taking the form of two lion heads.  
"Tenseigan, truth seeking lion: eight trigram 64 palms!" Hinata rushed forward again, striking the demon with two hands at once. The amount of chakra that hit the demon ripped through it rapidly, bursting through tiny holes on the demons back. Not only that, but blood was bursthing through these holes as well as its mouth and nose. She span on the spot, striking it two more times. Then another four, and another eight. All the way to completion of the sixty four palms again. The demon panted, falling back to the ground. Hinata stumnled backwards out of her chakra cloak, similarly exhausted.

"It took that attack… and it still isn't dead?!" Hinata took her stance again, even if she didn't kill it. This demon was clearly weakened. Despite that, it got to its feet ready to fight again.  
"Wind style: Slicing leaf hurricane!" Mirai dived down behind the demon, her boots charged with her wind style chakra. With the slicing power of the wind style behind her kick she was able to behead the demon easily.  
"Lady Hinata, are you ok?"  
"Yes Mirai, thank you. I'm going to join up with Hanabi and Himawari. What about you?"  
"There is a group of larger monsters in the north of the village, I'm heading over there just now."  
Hinata ran towards her daughter and sister, with both in clear sight of her byakugan. She could see her sister fighting a group on her own, a large group. It probably wouldn't be much of a challenge for her on her own, but trying to protect Himawari was making it more difficult.  
"Rotation!" Hanabi knocked back several demons as the tried to jump on her, a demon jumped towards Himawari from the other side of Hanabi. Using her own Byakugan Himawari was able to dodge the attack and counter it with one of her own. Two more demons dived at both of them from above. Hanabi turned and pushed them away with her air palm wall. More demons rose up from above the ground reaching for the two women. Hanabi was able to defend herself with the rotation, but Himawari…. She managed to knock a couple of them away but one eventually tripped her up. That ones claws were getting closer to her inch by inch. She closed her eyes in an attempt to hide from her fate. The sound of torn flesh drowned out Himawari's ears, but she didn't feel them teraring into her. What she felt was blood, dripping down onto her face. She opened her eyes weakly, the blood continued to drip. With a large drop landing directly in Himawari's eyes. Her vision blurred through a red filter, she could still see it. She could still see the claw. The claw that pierced through her mother's abdomen.  
"Himawari… run…." She mumbled, Himawari couldn't hear her. She couldn't hear anything. The demon pulled its arm from Hinata's body, the spiked along the length of its arm further tearing her insides. Her body went limp, falling down onto Himawari. When the body landed in Himawari's arms, she could feel the emptiness inside it, her mother was gone.  
"MOMMY!" She cried, Hanabi turned quickly to see her older sister lying in nieces arms.  
"Hinata…." She morned, quickly caught off guard by two more demons coming at her. Boruto flew across the battlefield, cutting down both demons. He flung his swords to the ground and brought his hands infront of him. His super rasen blast ripped through the demon that killed his mother just as it was about to make another attack on Himawari.  
"Mom..."


	52. The end of the leaf

The End of the Leaf

There didnt seem to be any distintion between the demons who could increase in size and those who could not, something Sarada was quickly realising. They were everywhere, she had teamed up with a member of the hyuga clan hoping their byakugan could do what her sharingan couldn't. Since she parted ways with Boruto, she was running from distrcit to distric after the orange glows that signaled these, _collasall,_ demons. And it was wearing her down. Her Hyuga comrade had directed her towards a group of large demons that had cornered a group civalins.  
"Fire style: fire wall!" Sarada spat her fire jutsu towards the civilians, creating a large wall of fire between them and the large demons. The Hyuga moved to evacuate the civillians while Sarada began jumping from building to building and around the fire wall. She jumped over above the demon and swung her leg down in an axe kick. The demon fell to thr gound limp, either dead or unconcious. Another demon came at her from the side, preparing to swallow her whole.  
"Fire style: fire ball jutsu!" Sarada launched a fireball into the demons jaws and into its stomach. The demon wrenched back as Sarada jumped up after it, punching it in the head.

"Ko... where are we going next? Where... are..." Sarada panted, falling over weakly.  
"Sarada, you need to take a break for a minute." The Hyuga tried to motion her to sit for a moment but she shoved him off. A group of normal sized demons descend upon them, with his byakugan, Ko could see them even in his blind spot and with Hyuga clan taijutsu repeling them wasnt difficult. The demons suddenly errupted in an orange light Sarada stood forward but slumped over.  
"Damn it..." As the demons rushed back towards them another figure appeared between them and the ninja. A figure who doned the same clan crest as Sarada. Sakura Uchiha. Sakura pressed her fist into the demons stomach, her strength exceeding Sarada's the demon flew back knocking down the other demons behind it.  
"Sarada! Are you alright?! You have pushed yourself too hard." Sakura began restoring her daughters strength using medical ninjutsu.

"Thanks mama, I'll be ready to go soon."  
"Ah!" Ko screamed, the two turned to him to find him being consumed by a demon. It seemed different from the other demons, it was more human like but it had enlarged its jaws to bring Ko into its mouth. It seemed to be applying pressure to him, evident from the sound of grinding bone and bursting body parts. It eventually swallowed him, somewhat whole before laucnhing itself towards them. Sakura took stance and punched the demon back. The demon spat out ballls of energy towards her, Sarada stood up infront of her mother.  
"Fire style: Phoniex flower jutsu!" Spitting out small balls of fire she was able to deflect the energy balls it had fired. Sarada made more hand signs.  
"Fire style: burning ash!" Sakura dived into the same ash cloud which now obscured the demon, punching the demon into the ground with the entirety of her might. Sakura quickly jumped out of the ash, allowing her daughter to set it ablaze.  
"Well done Sarada!" Sakura waved to her daughter as she walked back over to her.

The demons jaws burst out from underneath the grown and engulfed Sakura. Sakura punched the roof of the demons mouth but it simply stretched in, absorbing the strike.  
"MAMA!" Sarada ran forward, kunai in hand. The demon turned and swipped her away while still adding pressure onto the woman inside its mouth. Even with her strength Sakura was soon struggiling to hold this back on her own, activating her strength of a hundred seal. The extra chakra only served to delay the invevitable which camme with a loud snap. Sakura turned to find the bone of her arm pertruding from her elbow. No longer able to push on that side she fell over, quickly being squashed by the other side and letting out a large scream. A second snap, her spine. The screams faded away but the demon still lightly chewed on the woman inside. Sarada fell onto her knees. Tears slowly flowing from her paralysed eyes. Frozen, all she could was watch as the demon finished consuming her mother. Time felt as if it was barely moving, the sound of every breaking bone or bursting flesh seemed to last forever. The demon swallowed Sakura's corpse, turning to face Sarada. Sarada still frozen, only stared back. Her eyes begining to tremble. The demon laucnhed itself at her but a ninja jumped between them. Landing on one foot and spinning on it, the bracers on her legs glowing with chakra.

"Wind style: sweeping wind wall!" Mirai swung her still airborn leg, laucnhing from it a wave of wind which picked the demon up and carried it into the distance.  
"Sarada... are you alright?" Mirai asked, not expecting a god answer. Sarada didnt actually answer at all. Her eyes were following the demon as it flew through the air. Tremmbling faster. Her breath racing.  
"Sarada..." Faster still. Unable to catch her breath. The tears in her right eye became thicker with blood as her right eye began to spin. Once the only flow that remained was the blood her eye had fully transformered. Her mind stained with the image of her mother. Her ears flooded with the sound of her breaking spine. Her eye widened, her lungs cried out. The sky lit up. The village turned a shade of red. Her screaming drowned out by the screeching sky. A crimson bolt of lightning stuck the falling demon, following through to the ground below. The wind whistled through the tall skyscrapers of the hidden leaf before an even greater wind knocked them down and ripped them apart. Screams of ninja and demon a like were drowned out by the other noise filling the air as the massive explosion killed them all. The ground cracked and shifted the force of the fallen building causing the ground to crumble entirely. The once iconic hokage face mountain crumbled too pieces, the city above it falling with it as the debris killed hundreds of human and demon alike. The dust wave ran out across what remained of the village, throwing various survivors into the wind. The wind, carrying debris, ninja and demon alike caused further damage as it tore through the streets. Boruto turned to see the approaching blast wave before running over towards Himawari jumping on her and shielding her from the blast. Various shards of debris and remnants of metal skin cut through Boruto like shuriken. At the far side of the village, a young girl cried; one eye, crying normal tears. And the other, crying blood from the use of the mangekyou sharingan, the right eye. The right eye of Sarada Uchiha.

Some time later, the rumble began shifting. Boruto pushed a number of large rocks off of himself. At his side, Hanabi was removing various piecies of metal that had cut into her. It was difficult to breath, difficult to see. Dust still filled the air, weighing it down and casting the village in a dull lifeless grey.  
"Boruto! Are you and Hiamwari ok?!" Boruto turned to look at his younger sister, she was unconscious but she seemed to be ok. Sarada suddenly appeared in Boruto's thoughts. He activated his Byakugan and began looking for her. He eventually found her unconscious in the arms of Mirai Sarutobi. Boruto made a shadow clone which picked up his younger sister. The real Boruto created two wind style rasen-blasts in his palms, using them to propel himself into the air. He created a second set of wind blasts and used them to soften his landing next to Sarada and Mirai.  
"Mirai! Is Sarada ok?!" He rushed over.  
"I… I…"  
"Mirai?!" He grabbed onto her, shaking her.  
"She did this… I think Sarada did this…."  
"What do you mean Sarada did this? Did what?" MIrai turned and looked to the centre of the blast wave.  
"You mean… she did _this_?!"

Elsewhere, two figures stood up, emanating a sparking red energy as they done so. Healing their wounds. One figure carrying a long glaive like weapon and the other stood unarmed but with line like tattoos covering his lower arms. Standing across from them was a third man, wielding a sword in his only hand; Sasuke Uchiha.  
"Damn, I think Manaheart was right. It will take the two of us to take him alive."  
"Hm, alive?" Sasuke questioned.  
"Our Intel suggested that you're right eye is one of the most powerful weapons in this universe, and that only you can use its full power. We kosen desire to make that power our own."  
"This universe? I see, so you are from across the void. That explains why you have no chakra."  
"What?! You know about the void? Interesting." The man with the tattoos rose his hands, the tattoos began glowing summoning a number of glowing orbs. The orbs launched themselves at Sasuke. Sasuke deflected them with his blade when the other one appeared swiping at him with his weapon. Another glaive wielding kosen came from behind Sasuke, this one looked similar but darker and wrapped in shadows. Turning to cut into it, Sasukes blade snapped on contact with it. The shadow wrapped figure swung his glaive round. Sasuke's rinnegan widened, swapping places with it. With Sasukes timing, the shadow wrapped figure struck his original. Sasuke span round, making a hand sign.  
"Inferno style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke spat out a large fireball before covering it in the black flames summoned by his rinnegan. The large, black flamed, fireball consumed the kosen and his shadow wrapped doppelganger.  
"Inferno style: Susano flame control!" A flaming arrow shot through the fireball, striking the second kosen and setting him ablaze.  
"Let's just see how long that regeneration of yours la-"Sasuke stopped for a minute, turning to face the opposite direction. "Naruto… his charka… it's gone…"

"Lady Hanabi, you're alright." Mirai approached the Hyuga clan head, with her newphews clone and niece in toe. They were now on the outskirts of the village, within the evacuation shelters of the hidden leaf village.  
"Yeah, Hinata is… gone."  
"I'm sorry Hanabi."  
"How many survivors?"  
"Less than a thousand." Mirai turned to look at Sarada as she spoke.  
"What?"  
"I'll explain later, we need to get out of here. Can you have a look outside? Whats the situation? How many demons?"  
" _Demons?_ " Hanabi looked confused.  
"That's what everyone is calling them." Hanabi nodded, activating her bykaugan. She quickly turned it off again.  
"Most of them caught up in the blast, but there is still a lot. And most of the surviros are injured." The ground shook, dust fell from the ceiling. Hanabi quickly turned her byakugan back on, looking outside.  
"Damn, get down!" Hanabi ran over to a survivor leaning against the wall but before she reached him a large metal arm crashed through the wall and ran him through. The wall began crumbiling, revealing a number of enlarged demons. As the demons edged closer to the surviors most of them just closed their eyes and embraced their loved ones. Boruto stood with a rasen blast in each hand, Mirai stood with her weapons filled with wind chakra. Before they attacked a large fist punched into the demon, knocking the demon across the village. Kurama roared, firing a series of tailed beast bombs, picking up the demons and carrying them into the distance before exploding.


	53. Chapter 38

h2Chapter 38/h2  
p class="MsoNormal" /p  
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;""Hehehe" Hinata giggled lightly, looking down at the ramen infront of her she picked up the chop sticks. br / "I swear! That's what happened! Even though he was one of the legendary sanin the pervy sage was a big clutz!" Naruto shouted comically, even dropping his ramen onto the floor. br / "No! My ramen!" Naruto began to cry. br / "Hehe, you're one to talk, hero of the fourth great ninja war!" Hinata teasted, bringing up her chopsticks and tapping his nose. Naurto pouted for a moment before Hinata slid her ramen cup over to him. br / "Here, you can finish mine." br / "Really?! Are you… are you sure?" br / "Yes, it's fine. You were kind enough to invite me into your home. Naruto." Hinata turned to look outside the window, it was pouring down outside terrible weather for the picknic they were meant to be having. By the time she turned around again though, the remainder of her home cooked ramen was gone much to her amusement. Naruto had sat back on his couch now feeling full. Hinata giggled to her self, lying down onto Naruto and cuddiling into him. br / "Hinata…." Naruto blushed. br / "You owe me, I gave you my ramen hehe." She hugged him a little tighter. They just lay there for a moment in silence, not that either of them seemed to mind they both enjoyed the embrace. br / "You know, I sometimes think this is all a dream, us together. I've never felt so at peace." Naruto commented. br / "I know it's real." Hinata smiled. br / "I remember in the infinite tsukoyomi, I dreamed we were together. As much as I enjoyed living in that dream world, this is different. I can feel it." Hinata felt Naruto trembling in her arms. br / "Naruto?" br / "OH HINATA! YOU'RE SO CUTE! I DON'T DESERVE YOU!" Naruto hugged Hinata back tightly, too tightly as she pointed out. br / "Don't be silly Naruto!" br / "I mean it, Hinata. You watched me from a distance for so long, chasing after me, I didn't even notice you. You were the first to accept me for who I was…. I…. I wish I noticed back then. I wish I understood how I felt about you sooner."br / "We are together now Naruto, that's all that matters." /em/p  
p class="MsoNormal"Himawari groaned, stetching as she awoke. She rolled over in bed, looking at the watch she had found on one her scouts. She slept in, again. Himawari shot out of bed and prepared to get dressed. She had made a habit of this recently, getting lost in her families memories and sleeping in. After getting dressed Himawari left her apartment, grabbing an umbrella on her way out. It had been two weeks since Boruto saved Himawari from Zembala. Taking his advice, they decided to make their way to the land of earth and had now stopped in the village hidden in the rain. Of all the villages and town they had visited over the years, the village hidden in the rain was the most intact, architectualy anyway. On their way from the embassy they had been staying in, a large group of demons had forced them into the land of fire. Much to everyones shock, they had discovered another group of leaf survivors hiding in the remains of the fire temple. Himawari was set to go on another scout in only a few minutes, to gather supplies before the journey into the land of earth./p  
p class="MsoNormal"Elsewhere, Shikadai was over seeing the training of the younglings when he was approached by Jinsho Aburame. br / "The training seems to be going well, Shikadai." br / "Yes, just about everyone has a grip on the basic survival methods and joint take down strategties. Haru, you are throwing the kunai too early. Focus, if the demon notices you he will easily be able to avoid it before you can catch him and use the dragon flame jutsu." Haru turned and nodded to his sensei. br / "Hm, think you could end this lesson early?" br / "Why?" br / "Hm, I found this in the room I was staying in. I thought we could play, it's been a while." Jinsho explained, showing him the shogi set in his hands. Shikadai didn't look amused, he seemed more annoyed actually. br / "Everyone, lets call it early for today. Jinsho come inside." Shikadai motioned him into a nearby building. While his back was turned Jinsho started setting up. br / "Don't pretend Jinsho, I know you aren't here to play shogi. We haven't played since Mirai died. And I know its not cause of the set. We could have improvised." br / "Hm, as much I enjoy teasing you Shikadai, for never having beat me at this. I respect your intelligence." br / "Ha, now I know something is up." br / "I was hoping to run something by you, before we meet with Sarada later." The two then began playing, moving piece after piece./p  
p class="MsoNormal""So what is it?"br / "This village what do you think about it?" br / "It's surprisingly intact, almost makes you forget what happened." Shikai made his move, with Jinsho immediately responded. Shikadai stared at the board before making his next move. br / "What do you think of its architecture?" Jinsho asked while Shikai contemplated the game, but he was somewhat distracted by Jinsho's questions. br / "… You don't want to leave this place for the land of earth do you? Check." br / "Oh that was faster than " br / "This village is predominately made up of towers, the majority of demons act as ground troops and flying demons are a rarity. Which make this place perfect for abushes. Or, if we limit ourselves to the upper regions of these towers we can cover the ground with traps. Check." Both players had taken multiple pieces from one another. br / "Good deduction, you're missing a few key points though. With the towers high vantage points, our guard posts will be able to spot demons at a fair distance. With her chakra arms and Byakugan this place is perfect for Himawari, she would have the advantage incase of a humanoid attack. Then there is whats outside the village." br / "Outside the village?"br / "The water." br / "I don't follow." br / "I'm talking about Mito, and checkmate."/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: auto;""You want to stay here? And assign Mito as a guard?" Sarada spoke out, shocked at her two advisors. The two of them looked at one another for a moment. br / "Yes."br / "No! What about Boruto? He will be looking for us in the land of earth?!" br / "Boruto has the byakugan, finding us wont be an issue for him. Besides, I am curious about why these kosen have left the land of earth alone. So we should be sending scouts their regularly." br / "Still, no. I won't put that kind of stress onto Mito! She's not ready! She's been through too much!"br / "We've all been through too much! We've all seen our parents die! We saw our home destroyed! We owe you our lives Sarada, we can't deny that. But we are spread so stupidly thin! You have kept a handful of us in rotation while I teach the younger ninja self defence! Mirari, a jonin level ninja considered Mito a genius! And she was only eleven at the time. You can't protect her forever!" Shikadai shouted at her, taking a second afterwards to realise what he had done. br / "Hm, that was emotional Shikadai. But he isn't wrong Sarada. Quite a lot of the Koyo suffer from some form of PTSD, Mito's is second only to yours. So I understand why you are trying so hard to protect her." Sarada's expression was reserved, they were right and she knew it. br / "Ok… we stay here. We send scouts to the land of earth to investigate what Boruto told us." She turned to Himawari and Inojin, nodding at them to go. "And I will assign Mito as a guard. When she is ready." br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !- [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" / !-[endif]-/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: auto;""What… what are you talking about?" Mito muttered quietly, more than likely swallowed up in the sound of the waves. Sarada had come to see her personally, and brought her to the outskirts of the village, alone. br / "You should speak up, Mito. I can hardly here you." Sarada pulled her sword from its scabbard. br / "Miss Sarada…?" br / "Mito. You are the most gifted waterstyle user here. With the geography here, your skills are an asset we can't afford to waste anymore. So, I'm going to prepare you to be one of the main gaurds for this village." Mito cowered away behind Sarada's words. br / "Me… guard?" Sarada responded to her cowering, making a single hand sign. Her sword lit up in flames. br / "Fire style: Heaven slicing wave!" She swung the sword horizontally infront of her, creating a thin arc of fire approaching Mito. span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanMito made series of handsigns, creating a coloumb of water around her. Sarada's arc of fire evaporated the coloumb but was estinguised in the process. When the steam passed, Mito could see Sarada making more hand signs./p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-hyphenate: auto;"Elsewhere, Himawari and the scouts began exploring the land of earth. em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"br style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" clear="all" / /em/p 


End file.
